Naruto: The Storm Sage
by LonelyDreamer00
Summary: A challenge response. While stealing the forbidden scroll Naruto found something more than the Shadow Clone. Blessed with new powers and new allies, Naruto starts his journey differently. Strong Naruto, not god-like. **All chapters has been revised**
1. Chapter 1 : A Divine Blessing

**Naruto: The Storm Sage**

**Hello everyone. This is my first time writing a fan fiction. This story is a response of **_**devilzxknight86 **__**'s**_** challenge; Naruto the Storm Shinobi. All the credit for the basic concept goes to him/her.**

**Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto or any of its characters.**

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**A Divine Blessing**

The aged Hokage sighed. He read the report again and looked at his desk.

"Are you sure, Inu?" Hiruzen had to confirm this.

"Yes, Hokage-sama." The said man replied. He was wearing the traditional anbu attire and his mask was representing a dog. He continued, "Jiraiya-sama's information was accurate, but I was unable to inspect the place as there was nothing left. But we were able to find some ninja activities a bit further away."

"What about this explosion that you have put on the report?" The Hokage still couldn't take his eyes off from the object that was on top of his desk.

"I can't put my finger on it but whatever caused the explosion, surely _that _had a part in it. The explosion and the aftermath of it were really odd. I mean observing the place where it occurred, it seemed the explosion was caused by an S class jutsu and obliterated everything _except_ that." Inu explained his thoughts.

"Anything about the scroll?" The Hokage looked at a scroll. It was a small scroll engraved with Uzushio's symbol as well the said object's symbol. Hiruzen was hoping that some sort of instruction or information was inside the scroll that could help to solve the mystery around their current predicament.

"Nothing, I studied about seals but this is way out of my league. The only person who can open it is probably Jiraiya-sama." Inu replied back in a bit disappointed voice.

"OK, for now seal these inside the Forbidden Scroll. And Inu, you are to participate in the genin selection as a jonin instructor next week."

"Is it necessary?" Inu sighed.

"The council wants you to train Sasuke, you being the only one with sharingan can teach him about his bloodline." Hiruzen just shook his head.

"He still has to pass my test." Inu shrugged making the Hokage to sigh.

Hiruzen gave a dismissing wave and the Anbu left not a second later.

The Hokage took out his pipe. He wanted to make head and tail of the situation. Few weeks back Jiraiya sent him some vital information about some ruins located somewhere along the outskirts of Konoha. He sent an Anbu squad led by Kakashi to search the ruins. It was supposed to belong to the Uzumaki clan. But before the Anbu could even reach the ruins, they were slowed down by a sudden storm that came out of nowhere. It was so strong that even _he_ felt it from all the way here. And it didn't stop there, the Anbu reported that there was a huge explosion and when they went there, there was nothing left. The only clue of the explosion they found was the aftermath of it which created a huge crater as if it was caused by a strong phenomenon like meteor falling from the sky and the power of the explosion was so strong that it left nothing behind around few hundred meter radius. But the odd part was only those items were left unscratched on middle of the crater, _that object _and _the scroll._

The Hokage sighed and put down the report. He would have to think about it later, next week there were new batches of genin coming out and a few Jonin instructors had already made some recommendation. He had to oversee the making of the teams.

This was going to be another long night for him.

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**One Week Later**

It was a bad day for a certain blond.

He failed the graduation exam again. He studied and practiced hard but at the end just because he couldn't do one bunshin, he failed. Except for the written portion, he did quite average on other fields. But it wasn't enough. _'Why?'_ That's the only thought that was going through his mind. He always tried his best till he fell over but it was never enough. And no one helped him at all. All he ever asked for was the recognition of the people, to look at him, to smile at him. 'Was it so much to ask?' Sometimes he wondered, was all of these worth anything?

He looked at the sky. It was cloudy, a storm was coming.

"Hey Naruto, how are you feeling?" Naruto was snapped out from his thought and looked at the person. It was Mizuki. He didn't like this instructor that much, never knew why as it was more like a gut feeling.

"What do you think sensei? I failed in the test again." He said sourly.

Mizuki was glad inside; everything was going just like he was hoping for.

"Naruto, do you know about a secret test? It's for those that fail but might have potential in other areas. Wanna hear about it? You might pass if you do it properly." He laid out the bait.

"Really sensei? What is it about? Of course I will take it, dattebayo!" Naruto was ecstatic.

Hook, line and sinker. Inside Mizuki started laughing.

What they didn't notice that they were both seen by a blue haired girl who left hurriedly.

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**Few Hours Later**

Naruto stopped and hid behind a tree. "WOW! I didn't know Jiji was a pervert too. That was easy. Hmm, let's see the scroll, Mizuki-sensei didn't said that I can't learn anything myself." With that he opened the scroll and started to look for anything good. The jutsus were too complicated and suddenly he stopped at one jutsu. *KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU* he decided he would give it a go.

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Somewhere else

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Iruka was running with Hinata to find Naruto. The girl came to his house and told him about Mizuki. If it was anyone else he would have thought that it was a bad joke but Hinata's worried eyes and her frantic gestures told him that she wasn't lying. It angered him but instead of going after Mizuki he rushed to go to the tower but when he saw few anbu running around he knew that the damage had been done. He sent a message to the Hokage and started looking for Naruto, he couldn't lose time now. He had to find Naruto before Mizuki would. Hinata tagged along, he wanted to send her back but he really needed her Byakugan and the girl was also helping willingly.

His only wish was that he could find the boy whom he started to see as a little brother before it was too late.

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Back with Naruto

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"Wow that wasn't so bad. Maybe I should check out if there is anything else" With that he started looking into the scroll again.

His body was a bit ragged. It was hard to learn at first but he still pushed forward and at the end he learned it. Although he got few cuts on his hand courtesy of the tree next to him as he punched it when he got frustrated at the middle of his learning. But he didn't wish to stop now because he wanted to see if he could learn something more, something important. Chances like this never came so often. Then he saw the last part of the scroll, nothing was written there, but there was a symbol and it looked like the one he wore on his jacket. He touched it and he got surprised when suddenly there was smoke. When the smoke cleared he saw a mask and small scroll lying there. The mask had demonic feature but instead of giving a vile feeling like he thought it would it was releasing a divine energy.

"Weird." Naruto thought as he took the scroll and he was surprised when he saw that his jacket symbol again and this time it had the picture of the mask with it also. He touched the scroll and he didn't realize that the small blood on his hand touching the symbol. 'Poof'. Naruto was surprised to see the scroll opening. He opened it to see what was written there.

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*Raijin, the Shinto god of lightning.

With the help of this divine mask you shall be able to call forth the blessings of Raijin, god of lighting, thunder and storms.

Be wary summoner, if your chakra and spirit are vile, you will be punished for daring to summon a divine god. You will be reduced to nothing as the power of the storm will tear you apart from inside.  
Even if you are to summon the divine god, your body will be his to possess and after the deed is done the pressure of the divine lightning chakra will destroy your chakra and nerve system.

Let the storm obliterate everything in its path.*

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"HOLY SHIT!" that's the only thought that came to Naruto.

"To summon a divine god? A GOD? Ok this is out of my league, I don't understand what the warning means but it doesn't sound good at all. For now let's put the …. Ok, how am I supposed to put the mask and the scroll back inside? Damn it!" He sighed as he finished debating with himself; there wasn't much time left so he would have to ask Mizuki-sensei later. He put the mask and the scroll inside his jacket, closed the Forbidden scroll and started going to the meeting point.

It didn't take long for him to reach the meeting point.

Now Naruto was waiting there as he came a bit early but he couldn't help it, he was excited. He heard some noise and he looked around and he was surprised to see Iruka and Hinata.

"Hey Iruka-sensei, what are you….." but he was cut off when Iruka dashed to him, grabbing him he jumped back. Naruto was surprised and then he was shocked to see there were kunais on the place where he was standing.

Mizuki was not having a good time. He had to slow down to make sure no one was following him. Now before he could even get to Naruto, Iruka was there already and the main problem was Hinata. If she wasn't here he could have tried to fool Naruto. Now he didn't have time to waste, he had to jump the gun as the clock was ticking.

"Naruto this is a trap. I already sent a message to Hokage…" before Iruka could finish Mizuki started laughing. He looked at Naruto with a disgusted face and shouted, "Hey Naruto, you want to know why the villagers hate you? Why everyone….."

"Mizuki!" Iruka shouted and he threw some shuriken at him. Mizuki jumped and hid behind a tree.

"Naruto, Hinata. Go get help, you won't stand a chance against him. GO!" Iruka told both the kids. Before both of them could run, "Don't you want to know Naruto? Why everyone ignores and neglects you?" Mizuki started saying while jumping behind the trees. Naruto stopped hearing that. Hinata got worried when she looked at the eyes of the blond, there was desperation, something she had never seen before. Iruka tried to go after him but Mizuki kept throwing shuriken at the kids, keeping him defending them. "Twelve years ago, Yondaime couldn't kill the Kyuubi so he sealed it inside a baby, and that baby is you, Naruto."

Time seemed to stop for Naruto. All the time the question he always asked himself '_why' _had finally been answered. He didn't wait to see the look on Hinata or Iruka's face. He jumped and started running away. Hinata was heartbroken after knowing the truth. When she looked at Naruto, she could see the pain in his eye, the fear. Before she could say anything he jumped away. Without a second thought Hinata gave pursuit.

"Naruto! Hinata!" Iruka screamed but before he could do anything he saw a fuma shuriken coming at him. He jumped to avoid and then he saw his mistake. Another fuma shuriken was coming at him, while he was still in mid-air.

Hinata was running, she could see Naruto with her Byakugan. She couldn't take this; the boy she admired and liked was torn to pieces. She couldn't run away now, he needed her, she _needed_ to tell him that all this didn't matter. She suddenly saw a fuma shuriken coming at her from behind fast. She dodged it but not fast enough as it cut her leg. She took her gentle fist stance and stood there. She looked at her leg, it wasn't deep cut but she could see she wouldn't be able to outrun Mizuki now. But she was glad when she saw that Naruto also stopped behind some trees. But she had to focus on Mizuki now for she would protect him with her life.

"Why do you care for the demon child, eh, Hinata? You know that he is the fox that caused so much pain all those years back? Many of your clan members died too if I remember?" Mizuki was trying not to kill Hinata, killing the Kyuubi brat and Iruka was one thing but a clan heiress was another.

"You are wrong! Na-Naruto-kun isn't a demon. He is a b-boy that tries his ha-hardest and always stands up no matter what. I do-don't care if he has Kyuubi inside of him, he is not the Ky-kyuubi, he is Naruto; the p-person I admire most and I will not let you kill him!" Hinata shouted.

Mizuki was pissed, he really didn't want more trouble but now there was no other way, he had to kill her and find Naruto fast.

Naruto was shocked to hear this. Hinata didn't mind that he had the Kyuubi inside of him. Sure he didn't know the girl that much but he knew that she was shy, quiet and a bit weird but also caring. And here she was saying all these gentle things about him, but one thing that rang through his head the most that she saw him for who he was, not the Kyuubi. He looked out from the tree and was horrified when he saw Mizuki threw his fuma shuriken and he started preparing another. Hinata dodged the first one and then she saw Mizuki throwing another one. With her eyes she saw that the first one was coming back from behind. She knew she might not be able to dodge both of them at once with her damaged leg.

Naruto was terrified; the first person that recognized him was going to die right in from him. He started running towards her but he knew he couldn't reach her in time. He needed to be a god to reach…..

The Mask of Raijin.

"_Screw the warnings."_ He thought to himself as he had to save her no matter what. Without another thought he took out the mask and wore it directly.

And then everything went blank.

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**Naruto's Mindscape**

Kyuubi looked in front of his cage, he was surprised,_** "Who knew that the brat had it in him?"**_

"**I am surprised to see you didn't zap the kid to death**."

"**Kurama, it's been long since we faced each other, last time it was with Hagoromo-dono****.**" Said a figure which was covered in shadow. "**You have fallen far**."

"**I am sure you didn't come to chat with me, and by the looks of it you got something to do with the stupid host of mine**." Kurama said bitterly.

"**The stupid host of yours interests me. Naruto is it? ****Maelstrom****. Sounds befitting**." The figure chuckled.

"**Oi, what are you thinking of doing with him?**" Kurama was surprised, it was like the figure was enjoying himself.

"**Kurama, this kid from what I saw through his memories; despite all the treatment he gets he still stays strong. Something that is rare in this world. Hmm, amusing**."

Kurama laughed. "**You do know that it is a mask he created to protect himself, right?**"

"**Nonetheless, a mask to protect his innocence. The reason he never came to this part of his mindscape till now shows that even all the abusing he got, he still doesn't hold hatred in his heart. Sadness, yes; envy,** **maybe but not hatred. And the mask helped him to become courageous and strong. For that he earned my respect**." The figure replied back.

"**Why are you so interested in a mere mortal? It's not like you.**" Kurama said with an edge in his voice.

"**When he wore the mask, he SHOULD have been killed instantly but your yang chakra intervened my divine chakra, Kurama. If you had both of your chakra, things might have been different. It feels like this kid has a destiny of his own and he can't die right now. I will watch and see where this destiny of his leads him to**."

"**Goodbye, Kurama**." With that the figure left.

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**With Naruto**

Naruto opened his eyes. His body was sore. He sat down and looked around. He was on top of the clouds?  
"Well this sucks. I thought the heaven will look a bit nicer than this." Naruto sighed.

"**Trust me boy this is not heaven, and no you are not dead yet**." Said a voice behind him.

Naruto jumped and slowly looked behind him. There was a HUGE GUY behind him, he was more than 8 feet tall and behind him few spheres were forming a circle with three tomoe inside each circle. He had a muscular body and his hair was crimson red. The thing that caught Naruto's eyes was the mask he was wearing. It was the same mask he was carrying, but looked more deadly. Most of his body was covered by shadow, even the eyes.

"Umm, who are you sir?" For some reason Naruto thought he shouldn't piss off this guy.

"**Hmm, why not give a guess, boy?"** Raijin mused.

"Your mask looked a lot like the one I…" Naruto gulped, "By any chance, are you Raijin, Shinto god of lightning?"

"**Yes that I am. So why did you tried to summon me boy? You do know that you will die by divine chakra overload**." Raijin said with a false edge voice, he wanted to test his determination.

Naruto was taken aback first but he quickly got over it when he remembered why he did what he did, "I don't care! I want to save my friend. She recognized me despite my burden. I will save her at any cost, even in exchange for my life." Naruto shouted, looking straight at Raijin.

Raijin was having more respect toward the boy. Here he was staring at him directly without a scare, even knowing who he was. And unlike others that tried to summon him before, he didn't want to use his divine power for destruction but to save a life.

All of this facts together was increasing Raijin's view toward Naruto.

"**Don't worry kid, you won't die cause of your special case. You are one lucky guy do you know that? And you interest me. So I will give you my blessing for your courage and honesty. But you have to ….**"

"I accept!" Naruto shouted. _"Blessing from a Shinto god? With that power I will be able to protect all of my precious people."_

Raijin smiled inwardly. Naruto didn't know but Raijin could hear all his thoughts. "_**Maybe he will do just fine.**_"

"**Fine then, you will have my blessings and you will gain new powers to help you in your journey but be aware little fellow, from time to time you will be tested by me to see if you will still be worthy enough to keep them. And those times your will and courage will be put to test and judged, fail and you will receive punishment worse than death. Do you still accept kid?**" Raijin asked one last time.

"I accept dattebayo. I promise I will not fail you no matter what test you put me through and I never go back down on my words. It's my nindo." Naruto said loudly. He wouldn't back down; not now, not ever.

"**You are indeed one amusing kid and I respect that strong will of yours. Never lose that will and courage kid. I will leave my companion here; so that he can guide you how to use the powers. Farewell, Naruto. Let's pray our next meeting will also be a pleasant one**."

Naruto suddenly felt like he had been hit by thunder, his whole body started to feel numb and he slowly started to lose consciousness.

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**Real World**

Naruto opened his eyes and tried to look around but for some reason even moving his neck hurt. He felt like he was grabbing something, he looked down and he saw he was holding onto Hinata, as was she. He could feel her heartbeat, _"She is alive!"_ He relaxed, closed his eyes and thanked Raijin.

Few moments later Kakashi and an Anbu squad came to the spot. Kakashi was surprised to see that the Naruto was in the middle of an explosion zone that looked exactly like what he saw on his last mission. He saw Naruto was holding onto Hinata like she was his lifeline. He tried to separate them but the moment he touched Naruto he felt like he had been zapped hard. Before he could try do anything Hokage arrived there as well. He didn't even look anywhere else as he strode right toward the kids.

"Kakashi, go get Hiashi. I will take these two to hospital." He ordered. Kakashi hesitated for a bit but then he sighed and left.

Hokage looked at Naruto and hoped nothing bad happened but looking around he knew that he was wrong. He just had to wait to hear all the details from him directly.

With that he carefully picked both of them up and shunshined to the hospital.

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**Here is the First chapter, Hope you guys liked it; feel free to leave any suggestions.**

**Till Next Time **


	2. Chapter 2 : A New Tenant

**Thank you guys for the reviews and liking the story. Firstly, I apologize for the last chapter as it was not uploaded the way I wanted it to be. First time uploading so I don't know where it went wrong.**

**devilzxknight86 : Thanks and hope you like the upcoming chapters as well.**

**Ryuujin96 : In the next few chapters, you will find out where Naruto is going to be placed and as for his powers, his fight will be different with his canon opponents and he will have more stronger opponents as he himself is stronger than the canon version.**

**Thunder Claw03, anarion87, Rose Tiger, casefde, FinalKingdomHearts and the guest; thank you for reviewing. Hope you guys like the future chapters as well.**

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Hiruzen was looking at the hospital bed where his surrogate grandson was sleeping. His appearance changed a bit and he got no idea how it happened. He grew few inches taller, his hair was spikier and his face had lost some of his baby fat. Hiruzen started to get worried. _"Was it Kyuubi's influence or was it something else?" _That's the only thought that was going through his mind. For now he had to wait for Naruto to wake up. He got out of the room and silently signaled the anbu to stand guard. He went towards the other room thinking that they might shed some light to this new mystery.

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**Naruto's Mindscape**

Naruto started to wake up slowly. He rubbed his eyes and started looking around. He was not on top of clouds anymore but this time it was a huge sewer. There was something in front; a light perhaps? He started walking towards that direction.

He stopped when he saw a huge cage-like gate. Behind the gate it was pitch black.

"**Finally we meet, eh, my jailor**." A deep voice spoke from behind the gate.

"Kyuubi?" Naruto asked. He jumped back when he saw the huge red eyes; filled with hatred but there was something else hidden deep inside those eyes.

"So you are the reason my life is like hell. Wow! That answers a lot of questions." Naruto sighed.

"**It was not by choice that I ended up inside a brat like you, that cursed Yondime sealed me in you. Without this seal I would have shown you real hell brat. If you blame anyone, blame that good for nothing blond monkey.**" Kyuubi hissed.

"Shut up furball!" Naruto shouted. He just met his prisoner and he was already getting pissed at him.

"**Why not you guys stop bickering like little kids?**" Spoke a new voice. This voice was deep and it had a thunderous edge to it.

Naruto was scared now, because this new voice was right behind him! Damn he hated it whenever this happened.

He looked behind and saw a HUGE wolf.

"Oh crap!"

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**Real World**

Hiruzen went inside another hospital room. Hinata was there with her father Hiashi. He knew the guy, a typical stoic type noble clan head. He looked at Hinata who was looking down. He had to handle this carefully.

"Hiashi, thank you for coming so fast." Hiruzen said.

"No problem Hokage-sama. If I may, I still didn't get the full report on why my eldest daughter is here." Hiashi said with no expression what so ever.

"Your daughter along with Naruto and Iruka helped to catch a traitor. I will mark it as a B ranked mission and will pay them accordingly. I will give you the full report tomorrow. But I want to ask something to your daughter alone if that's ok with you." Hiruzen hoped this ought to calm him down.

"Not a problem, Hokage-sama." Hiashi was a bit surprised, his daughter who was considered as a failure in his clan did a B rank mission the day she graduated as a genin. _"Guess there may still be some hope left"_ he thought but he didn't like his daughter associating with the Jinchuriki although for a different reason, but for now he would have to let it go.

"Hinata, take rest for today, I will come tomorrow and take you back." With that he left.

Hinata let go of her breath, she didn't know how long she was holding it. At least her father was not angry. "Hokage-sama how is Na-Naruto-kun?" she finally asked the question that was on her mind since she woke up.

Hiruzen smiled, but he needed some answers first. "Hinata, he is fine just exhausted. But I want to ask you some question." He asked and when Hinata nodded, he continued, "What do you remember before you passed out?" Hinata said, "I don't re-remember much Hokage-sama. I was in-injured when I got hit by Mizuki-sensei's fuma s-shuriken but be-before I got hit by a-another of his fuma-shuriken, I su-suddenly saw a huge lightning shaped like so-something hit behind me. It was so s-strong that I had to turn off my Byakugan and e-even had t-to close my eyes. After that I don't re-remember much." She left the part out where she was caught by two hands when she turned off her byakugan, she didn't need to see to know who it was, but by just thinking of that moment her face flushed up.

"_More mystery, this couldn't get any worse_", Hiruzen thought.

"Hokage-sama, the council has called for a meeting." An anbu came and informed the old Hokage.

Hiruzen sighed, he shouldn't have said that. He cursed his luck and went towards the council room.

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**Naruto's Mindcape**

"Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit!" Naruto was panicking, in front of him was this Gigantic wolf staring at him, he was almost as tall as the freaking Hokage tower. But unlike Kyuubi, this guy was not inside any cage. The wolf had blue and white fur mixed in, his whole body was emitting lightning streaks, but unlike actual lightning his were more controlled acting like it was a second fur over his normal one. He had this divine aura surrounding him that was fully opposite of the demonic aura he felt when he talked with Kyuubi.

"**So you are the brat that impressed Lord Raijin. You don't look like someone who can hold onto his nindo**." The beast said.

Naruto's emotion did a hundred eighty turn. "Who do you think you are insulting my nindo? I am Naruto Uzumaki, future Hokage of Konoha and I never back down on my words. I don't care who you are but insult my nindo again and I will beat you to a pulp."

"_**I think I know now why Lord Raijin found this boy amusing**_." The beast spoke again but a bit gentler this time, "**My name is Raiju; I am the legendary divine thunder beast and the trusted companion of Lord Raijin. Tell me boy, do you still think you can beat me to a pulp, hmm?**" Raiju said with an amused voice.

Naruto didn't say anything but he didn't look away. Raiju was impressed of the boy's courage. Any other people would have been scared or begged him for mercy by now.

"Why are you here then, Raiju?" Naruto asked.

"**Maybe we should go somewhere a bit nicer, would you like to change the place?**" Raiju answered, looking behind Naruto he saw Kyuubi had gone deep inside the cage; guess he was not interested in their conversation for now.

"Sure, but how do you change the place?" Naruto told the beast, looking around the sewer.

"**This is your mind boy, think of a quiet place you like and then focus on the image.**" Raiju explained to Naruto and he did so; Naruto closed his eyes and concentrated, thinking of his favorite quiet place.

When he opened his eyes to see that he was on top of the Hokage monument, on his favorite spot; top of Yondime's head.

"**Not a bad place kid. It's got a nice feeling to it. Sit down; we got lot to talk about.**" Raiju told Naruto.

Naruto sat down; he knew this was going to take some time.

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**Council Chamber**

Hiruzen sighed, the civilian council was in uproar, few hours ago all of them felt the huge chakra wave, and also the explosion and the sudden increase of the storm didn't help either. Shinobi side was quiet but they were on an edge as well because they were able to feel the Kyuubi's chakra. Everyone was waiting for the Hokage to explain the situation.

"I know all of you are nervous and want to know what happened, but right now I, myself don't have the full information of the situation BUT rest assured it was not done by an enemy attack, few hours ago Mizuki tried to trick one student into stealing the forbidden scroll but Iruka along with two students stopped the traitor. But something went wrong with the forbidden scroll and the accident happened."

The council room became a bit quiet after hearing this.

Homura asked, "Is the forbidden scroll ok?" The aged Hokage sighed, and replied, "Yes it is fine and further information will be given after I sort out everything. For now the meeting is over."

There were lots of displeased faces but right now he didn't care as he needed some rest.

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**Back With Naruto**

"Wait, what do you mean you made changes to my body?" Naruto shouted.

"**Calm down boy, I didn't make any major changes, your body changed slightly while adapting to the new power Lord Raijin bestowed upon you.**" Raiju explained.

"What power, I don't feel any different." Naruto was puzzled.

"**Of course you won't feel any different cause you are in your mind. Boy, calm down and let me finish first.**" Raiju sighed, he knew Naruto would be the energetic type but didn't know how much.

"**Now as for this new power, it's an enhanced element. You have both Uzumaki and Senju blood though the Senju blood is more dormant. However cause of Lord Raijin's blessing your Senju blood has awakened. Now tell me do you know anything about the Senju and Uzumaki bloodline?**" Raiju asked.

Naruto was speechless, he never knew there was an Uzumaki clan and now he learned that he also had Senju bloodline, one of the founders of Konoha!

Finally getting out his surprise state, he looked at Raiju. "I don't know about those clans but how do you know which clan I am from? Do you know who my family is?" Naruto asked with a shaky voice, he couldn't help but to feel some hope rising inside him.

Raiju was a bit surprised. Then he remembered what Raijin had told him when he was asked by the Shinto god to look after the child.

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Flashback

"_**Is it must that I have to guide this kid, he doesn't look much. And if you gave him your blessings, isn't he supposed to prove his worth on his own**__." Raiju asked the lightning god curiously._

"_**He has great potential, and yes like you said IF it was normal circumstances I would have preferred that he proved his worth on his own but after I saw his memories and learned of his family, I want this kid to have someone to guide him. And who else I can trust with this more than you, my old friend**__**.**__" Raijin said._

"_**What about his memories and his family?**__" Raiju was a bit confused._

"_**Let's just say he is from a noble family but he is being treated like dirt. And if you want to motivate him just tell him that next time we meet, if he is able to please me I will tell him about his family**__**.**__"_

Flashback Ends

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"**Truthfully speaking kid, I don't know about your family. I was told by Lord Raijin about your family **_**status**_** and before you start asking, Lord Raijin said that he will tell you about your family **_**only if**_** you can prove your worth the next time you meet.**"

Naruto was shaking; he finally found a lead on his family. He would prove his worth to the Shinto god, no matter what challenges he would throw at him.

Raiju was impressed, few moments ago the kid seemed like he was going to break down and now there was a fierce determination in his face, his eyes were clearly telling that he was ready for anything.

"Raiju-san, you were saying something about my bloodline?"

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**Outside World **

Hokage was looking at Naruto, he needed to know Naruto's part of the story and he knew that was the key fragment of the situation. He didn't like to do this but it had to be done fast before certain party started to make their moves.

"Is it necessary, Hokage-sama?" Inoichi, the clan head of Yamanaka, asked.

"You know very well Inoichi, when the explosion happened there was a sudden spike of Kyuubi chakra and it was different than what we felt twelve years ago as if it was covered by something else and it was gone as quickly as it came. But I am sure quite a few people felt it and so I need to confirm if everything is ok or not." Hokage replied, the clan heads didn't have any hatred towards the boy but that didn't mean they were going to overlook this. From the meeting he could see all of them wanted to know what had happened.

"Very well, Hokage-sama." After saying that, Inoichi touched Naruto's head and he dived into his mind.

Less than a minute, Inoichi let go of Naruto's head and looked surprised.

"What happened?" Hokage inquired.

"Nothing. I don't know how but his mind seems to be well guarded as something pushed me away before I can check his memories. I couldn't even enter his mind properly. If it makes you feel any better Hokage-sama, I didn't feel Kyuubi's chakra." Inoichi answered.

Hokage just shook his head, they were back to square one. _"The mental barrier, is it Kyuubi or did Minato created a protective barrier?"_ He would have to ask Jiraiya to come and check the seal.

In the meantime, he had to take measures before certain people started to make move on Naruto.

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**Naruto's Mindscape**

"What happened?" Naruto asked Raiju, while explaining the beast suddenly stopped moving in the middle and had a blank look on his face for few seconds.

"**Nothing kid, now where was i? Uh yes, your bloodline. Let me explain a little bit about Senju bloodline. The ones who have strong Senju blood in them, they can manipulate natural affinities and some of them, the strong ones, can cope with senjutsu.**" Raiju started explaining.

"Umm, Raiju-san, what is senjutsu?" Naruto asked with a clueless face. Raiju only sighed. This was going to take time. "**Naruto, there are six major type of jutsu people can use; I think you know about ninjutsu, genjutsu and taijutsu. The other three are bukijutsu, fuinjutsu and senjutsu. Now bukijutsu, as it sounds is techniques and jutsu using weapons, with proper training they can be as, if not more, deadly than taijutsu. Fuinjutsu is one of the most complicated type of jutsu. I don't know much about it though as an Uzumaki you should have an upper hand on this but we will talk about it later. Now senjutsu is one of the most ancient styles. Blessed with natural chakra, you will fight as a sage rather than a ninja**." Raiju smiled when he saw Naruto getting excited, he continued, "**Now in your case, you have two bloodlines**."

Naruto let the information sank in, not one but two, "TWO BLOODLINE!" He started jumping around and started shouting and cheering for being so awesome. Raiju waited, then he asked, "**You done?**" Naruto stopped but his whole body was shaking with excitement. "**Let me tell you what your bloodline does and what I am here for, your first bloodline that you got by birth, the Uzumaki bloodline gave you excessive chakra, healing ability and it would make easier for you to learn kenjutsu and fuinjutsu. It's more like a passive bloodline. Now your Senju side awakened by Lord Raijin has given you Storm release and the ability to use senjutsu directly.**"

Naruto was confused, he was excited but this was too much for him to know at once. Raiju knew the look; he knew he was the only one that could answer all of his questions right now and he had to be patient about it.

"**Kid, I know this is too much to take. So for now I will just explain to you what Storm release is. I will tell you about the senjutsu when I see you are ready. Now do you know anything about wood release or ice release?**" Raiju asked.

"Don't know about the ice release but I heard that Shodaime was able to use wood release." Naruto replied.

"**Wood release is an enhanced natural element combining earth with water. Same with ice release, you combine water with wind; you get an enhanced natural element. But those without the bloodline won't be able to use it properly. So can you guess what Storm release is?**" Raiju asked Naruto.

"Something to do with lightning element?" Naruto answered.

"**Yes, lightning combining with wind and water, you can get the Storm release, it's one of the most hardest enhanced element to control and one of the strongest cause instead of combining two elements, you are combining three.**"

"Storm release; its sounds cool. Awesome!" Naruto smirked. "**And as for why I am here, I am here to guide you, to tell you what to do and how to control your element and powers although I won't be helping you directly. I will stay inside your mind for some time. Hope you don't mind having a new tenant**." Raiju said while looking behind as if he was looking deep inside his mind.

"Of course you can stay, you are better than the stupid furball anyway." Naruto was excited to have a legendary beast inside him and not only that, he would guide him as well.

"**Good to know and one more thing kid, I can talk with you through your mind, so if you want to talk to me just talk through your thoughts.**" Naruto nodded and suddenly he felt very tired and before he could ask anything he was drifted to sleep. Raiju was a bit excited as well; it had been quite some time since he had something like this to do. **"Maybe Lord Raijin is right, it could be **_**amusing.**_**"**

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**Hokage Tower**

Hiruzen was relaxing in his chair; he knew he needed that. Today was anything but peaceful. The talk he had with his advisors was not pretty either.

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Flashback

"_Let me get this straight, just because you felt Kyuubi's chakra, you want the boy to do underground anbu training, Danzo?" Hiruzen looked at his other advisors. "And you two also think this is a good idea."_

"_Hiruzen, I know you care for the kid but the chakra spike wasn't normal. It was huge and combining with the explosion many Shinobi started to think it was caused by Kyuubi." Homura explained, he knew Hiruzen was right with his decisions lots of time but in many cases they needed to follow Danzo's way._

"_We are just saying put the boy in anbu training program and when everything calms down you can bring the boy back to normal ninja routine." Koharu added a bit of her thought._

_Hiruzen knew exactly what was going on. Danzo wanted Naruto on his root and using these two idiots he was trying to push him into it. The moment he would put Naruto in Anbu training program Danzo would try to snatch him. If Danzo wanted to play dirty so would he._

"_We will discuss this on tomorrow's meeting. Tell all the Shinobi clan heads to come at morning and there we will decide this properly."_

Flashback Ends

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Now he had to make sure he handled this carefully. He was making a huge bet on this. If he could pull this off, the advisors as well as Danzo wouldn't be able to easily ay their hands on Naruto anymore.

"You called for me, Hokage-sama?" An anbu came and kneel down before him.

"Yes I did. Relax, we got much to discuss about…."

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**That's it for chapter two. And can you guys give opinions of what do you think I should do with Sakura and Sasuke.**

**Will it more enjoyable if Sasuke is good or bad? And Sakura stays the same or you want some bashing?**

**Till next time.**


	3. Chapter 3 : Revelations

**Thank you guys for all the reviews and likes. As for Sasuke and sakura, I will try not to bash them unnecessarily. **

**FinalKingdomHearts : I know about the two elements but I will tell later why I added the other one, and it won't be disappointing.**

**And all those who are wondering where Naruto's placement will be, I put it in this chapter; where Naruto is going to be placed and why.**

**devilzxknight86: wow you got it, lol.**

**Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto.**

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Naruto started to wake up slowly, "Damn! I feel like I have been struck by lightning or something. My whole body feels numb." He started looking around and by the looks of things he knew he was in one of his least favorite place, the hospital. He slowly adjusted himself, he opened his blanket and saw himself wearing hospital gown. He saw an anbu peeked through the door and then left.

"Probably to call jiji-san".

"**Naruto.**" Raiju called him.

"What's wrong Raiju-san?" Naruto asked but he was silenced soon after,

"**Kid, I told you, just think and I can hear you. Don't need to talk aloud as people will get suspicious**." Raiju told Naruto. When he saw Naruto became quiet, he continued, "**Kid, don't tell anyone about Lord Raijin and me yet. Listen to me first.**" he said when he saw Naruto was going to say something. "**Power and blessings from a god is not to be taken lightly, you can't tell just anyone about it.**"

Naruto got a little angry, "I trust jiji, he is one of my most precious people and I know he cares for me."

"**Caring and trusting is different thing Naruto. Hmm, how about this? You ask this Hokage of yours about your other tenant and your parents. As a Hokage, he should know who your parents are. From there we will decide what to do**." Naruto didn't say anything, but he couldn't understand what Raiju meant by that. He asked Hokage lots of time about his parents but every time he said he didn't know them.

A few minutes later, Hokage came to his room and smiled at him.

"How are you doing Naruto?" Hokage asked.

"Jiji, I am fine." He stopped for a bit, "Why didn't you tell me about Kyuubi? You knew about it, didn't you?" Naruto accused, he didn't know what Raiju wanted but he himself wanted to get some answers.

"Naruto, you have to understand, you were young and you still are. I couldn't give you anymore burden than you already have. I wanted you to have a normal childhood and I know I failed at it but at that time I thought you were not ready to know about Kyuubi" Hokage replied with a sad tone, before he could ask anything to Naruto, the next question caught him off guard.

"Jiji, why did Yondime seal the Kyuubi inside me? Did he know my family? Do _you_ know my family?" This was too hard for the old Hokage, every time Naruto asked about his parents, his heart broke by lying to him, but this information was too much and he couldn't risk exposing Naruto to more dangers than he already was. "I am sorry Naruto, but I don't know why Yondime chose you or who your parents were."

"**He is lying. When he answered your first question, he looked right at you with sad eyes but now he is not looking at your eyes, you can see the guilt in his face. He is hiding something and even you can tell by the man's gesture**." Raiju told Naruto, and when he saw Naruto was going to shout, "**DON'T! Leave it be. If he doesn't want to tell you, then you shouldn't tell him everything. Just tell him this….**"Raiju explained to Naruto fast about what he should tell.

Hiruzen got worried when he saw Naruto became quiet after hearing his answers and kept his eyes closed. "You wanted to ask me something?" Naruto asked but he kept his eyes shut.

Hiruzen knew something was wrong but he put the thought aside, "Naruto what happened with Mizuki, I heard from Hinata and Iruka but I still need to know from you. Do you know anything about that mask?"

Hinata, with all the commotion going on, he forgot to ask about her. He guessed that his first priority after this would be to see her. He also needed to know what Iruka-sensei thought of him.

"First, I am sorry. I know I shouldn't have stolen the forbidden scroll. And I don't remember much after I wore the weird looking mask. When I saw Hinata was in danger I wore it to save her. It came with a scroll and it was said there that the mask can only be wore by those who have storm release bloodline or a fragment of it and it will help the wearer to unlock the true power behind the bloodline. But it also stated that those who do not have the bloodline will be punished. In a panic I wore the mask and seeing that I am still alive means I have the bloodline, right?" Naruto told exactly how Raiju said to him.

Hiruzen was speechless. Storm release bloodline, and the mask helped to achieve true power behind it. _"Maybe that was the reason that other party wanted the mask?"_ That answered most of his questions. But he wondered if Minato had the bloodline, Naruto did say even a fragment of the bloodline would do the job. He shook his head, he would think about it later but for now he knew what to do in the council as the information he received would definitely come in handy. Smiling at Naruto, he said, "Thank you Naruto, why don't you rest for a while. The doctors said that you should be fine after a while." Then he turned to leave.

"Thank you Hokage-sama." Hiruzen stopped, he slowly turned around to see Naruto was looking at him but his eyes weren't the kind eyes he saw few moments ago, but filled with sadness as if he was betrayed. Hiruzen's heart shattered, he didn't know when or how but he knew he messed up and lost his surrogate grandson's trust. For a long time they stared at each other, but when he opened his mouth to say something, Naruto turned around and put the blanket over his head. Hiruzen knew he couldn't do anything now; he damaged his relation with him without knowing. With a heavy broken heart, he left towards the council room.

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**Naruto's Mindscape**

"Why did he lie to me? I thought of him as my grandfather." Naruto said while sobbing lightly. One of his dreams was to find out who his parents were. People always said bad things about his parents but he knew in his heart that those were not true. He always wanted to prove them wrong.

"**Maybe he didn't do it with bad mindset, maybe he had other reasons; but don't put yourself down for this.**" Raiju was a bit saddened when he saw Naruto like this but it had to be done. Naruto had a good heart but the world was cruel. He had to stay strong or many would try to take advantage of him.

"**Leave it be, it's not like all is lost. You can learn about your family from Lord Raijin or did you forget about it?**" Raiju smiled when he saw Naruto started to beam up. "**So don't forget you have to get stronger to impress him.**"

"Thank you, Raiju-san. I promise I will impress him, dattebayo! And I never back down on my nindo**.**" Naruto wiped his tear and looked at Raiju, "If it's ok with you, can you tell me about Storm release?" Naruto asked the divine beast.

Raiju nodded and motioned him to follow.

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**Konoha Council Room**

Hiruzen was pissed, he only asked the Shinobi council to gather but for some reason, even the civilian council was there. After what happened with Naruto, he was not sure if he could control himself if some idiot said something bad about him. So he decided he was going to finish this as fast as he could.

"You all are here for the yesterday's incident and after learning from the last person I assure you again it was not from the enemy that caused the sudden storm explosion, it was caused by an item going haywire which was sealed inside the forbidden scroll." Hiruzen explained.

"Then what about the Kyuubi chakra, even if it was for a small time but there was a Kyuubi chakra spike, wasn't there?" Danzo asked and then all the civilian council went on an uproar.

"_Now I know who called them here and why. But rest assured Danzo I am not letting you touch Naruto on my watch_." Hiruzen thought.

He looked around and saw Shinobi council was getting restless and the civilian side was shouting to restrain or kill the demon. He saw his advisors had a contempt look on their face. Time to lay out all his cards.

"Quiet down! This is a council room not a market place." He said with a hard voice and waited till it became a bit quiet. Then he continued, "I know there was slight Kyuubi chakra spike but it was cause of an outside interference, which caused our young Naruto to awaken a new bloodline."

The room became extremely quiet. The Shinobi side started whispering now while civilian side was still trying to process the thought. Hiashi beat everyone with the question, "Can we know what bloodline he awakened?"

"Storm release bloodline." Hiruzen smiled. First ace was put down, Konoha loved bloodlines. With the news of carrying a bloodline, now the Shinobi side would aid Naruto as bloodlines were viewed as a great asset, especially the rare ones. And they might even start to care for him more cause of this rare bloodline.

"Wait, you mean to tell me that the kid got the rare bloodline that the Hidden cloud village has? How did the kid got it?" Shikaku, the jonin commander, asked.

"How he got it is an S class secret which won't be revealed for now AND for those who are still not satisfied with the Kyuubi problem, I have placed him under proper care. He will be under the care of an elite anbu, codename Tenzo and as for why he is chosen." Hiruzen snapped his finger and an anbu came who started distributing some files to the Shinobi side only. Second Ace has been put down.

Seeing this, one merchant head from civilian side shouted. "Hokage-sama, why are we not getting any of those files? If it is about the Kyuubi we have the right to get those."

The room became deathly quiet when they felt the huge killing intent. Hiruzen looked coldly at the merchant and asked in harsh voice. "Are you ordering me, the Hokage, to give you, a civilian, some top secrets that is related to anbu?" The merchant fainted dead away with the pressure. The killing intent went down and after taking a deep breath, Hiruzen continued, "This was supposed to be a Shinobi meeting, I don't know why the civilian council side came when you were clearly not invited but rest assure that if you people make the same mistake again in the near future I _will _ban the civilian council from sitting in any meeting till further notice, Do I make myself clear?" The civilian side was scared shitless, they never thought that the old and quiet Sandaime could get this angry and they didn't want to make this worse. So they apologized and said that it was not going to happen again.

"Does the Shinobi council have anything to say after reading the file?" Hiruzen asked. But he already knew the answer when he saw the clan heads faces.

"No, Hokage-sama. It is the most logical choice and I approve of it." Shibi said.

"The pup got a new rare bloodline and with this guy guiding him I don't see any problem either. I agree with it as well." Tsume said.

Inoichi didn't say anything but he nodded anyway, as did Choza and Shikaku.

"I approve as well." Hiashi asked, even though he didn't dislike Naruto for being a Jinchuriki but he didn't like the kid for his bad reputation; "_Maybe with this he might get onto the good side of the Shinobi_." Hiashi thought to himself.

"With the approval of the Shinobi council, I put genin Naruto Uzumaki under the apprenticeship of an elite anbu who, from now on, will go by the name Yamato. He has a unique ability that in long term will help Naruto with his host. And as for any other discussion or decisions regarding the said genin, it will be decided by ONLY me and Shinobi council. And when I see he is worthy of any promotion, be it through any exam or field activity, I and Shinobi council will decide if he will be promoted or not." Hiruzen said while smiling.

Homura quickly intervened, "You can't do that Hokage-sama. The civilian council and we advisors has the right…."

"Right to do what, exactly?" Hiruzen didn't let him finish. If he could pull this off, Naruto would have one less problem to deal with. "To interfere with Shinobi activity? Last time I checked the right to decide anything related to Jinchuuriki falls upon the Shinobi side and now that he is genin, I failed to see what right does the civilian has to do anything with his Shinobi life? And for the advisors, you are to _advise_ me and I know your decisions are meant to help me for the betterment of the village but because Naruto is a Jinchuuriki his jurisdiction falls under the whole Shinobi heads not just me. "

Danzo and the elders were furious; Hiruzen just foiled all of their plans. It meant that now civilian council had no right, whatsoever in any activity regarding Naruto. They might be able to pull the strings behind the civilian council but the Shinobi clan heads were not stupid. And they themselves couldn't make a move on Naruto now that all the clan heads would be watching the kid. One wrong move, advisor or not, they would be in deep problem. It felt like the Hokage just politely told them to _fuck off_.

"With this the meetings is over." Hiruzen smiled slightly and left the council room. It had been long time since he last left the council room with a satisfied face.

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**With Naruto**

Naruto and Raiju were once again at the top of Hokage Mountain but this time the place looked a bit stormier and the clouds in the sky seemed like they were a bit closer.

"**Hope you don't mind me changing the place to a bit to my taste**." Raiju said to Naruto. Truthfully, for some reason Naruto liked this better, so he nodded.

"**Now before we start, you seemed a bit distracted and it's not about the old man. Care to open up?**" Raiju inquired when he saw Naruto was a bit absent minded.

Naruto sighed, "I was thinking about Hinata and Iruka-sensei. Hinata, I don't know the girl much but the way she talked it was like she knows about me a lot and I am kinda confused after hearing all she said, don't get me wrong. Yes it felt good, really good after hearing those kind words but I don't know why she feels that way. And for Iruka-sensei I just want to know what he thinks about me and Kyuubi."

"**They did come to save you, so I am sure they came with a good reason. Ask them directly next time. Take it as an advice, try to know more people. I know you are afraid of being rejected but if you don't look around, you might miss people that may become your close ally. So get to know more people. I am not saying become best friend with them on the first meeting, it will come naturally**." Raiju hoped that Naruto didn't bring the old Hokage's fault here. Naruto needed real allies, the ones who would stick with him in tough times.

"Ok, I will give it a shot. Thanks for the advice Raiju-san, I feel better now." Naruto responded with one of his real smile, not the fake ones.

Raiju relaxed, this kid and depression didn't go together for some reason, with that he started "**Now with that cleared, let's talk about Storm release.**" Hearing this Naruto became more excited. "**As you know the Storm release is the combination of lightning, water and lastly wind. It is hard to master fully cause of the three element. Now to learn storm release techniques, first you have to learn lightning element. Like most other enhanced element, Storm release relies on one basic element**."

"What do you mean by that, Raiju-san?" Naruto was a bit puzzled.

"**Well it's how the enhanced elements work. Take wood release for example, people think it is the combination of earth and water but it is not. It's enhancing earth element with water element. That's why I called them enhanced element. You are not creating a new element; you are enhancing one basic element into something more, more like advancing it. Understood till this part, Naruto?**" Raiju asked, he learned that instead of pushing all the information together at once if he broke it down bit by bit while answering the kid's question, it would be easier for him to digest.

"Wow. I didn't know my bloodline works like that." Naruto was getting more curious to know about his own bloodline.

"**Yes. But Naruto your bloodline is not Storm release, its Senju bloodline and it helps you to use enhanced element AND senjutsu. For the storm release, you already had strong lightning affinity and with the blessings of Lord Raijin, it got upgraded to real storm release. And like i said before I will tell you about your senjutsu part later, when I see you are ready for it but for now let us focus on your storm release. Shall we?**" Seeing Naruto nodded, he continued, "**As for the storm release, you first have to learn lightning element, it will be easier as it is your primary element. After that you start enhancing it by adding water element and lastly wind element. I heard some people can use storm release by only adding water into the lightning element, but that's incomplete. Adding the wind element is the final and hardest part but when you reach that point, you will be able to use pure storm release techniques. Any questions so far, Naruto?**"

Naruto was feeling like he was on cloud nine, he had the Senju bloodline and someone was teaching him patiently about it and it was not just anyone. It was a freaking legendary beast! He was starting to enjoy this more and more. "So I have to master lightning element and then add water and wind element to it to learn storm release techniques?"

"**In a way yes, but you can't master one element especially lightning element so quickly. And you can't add water and wind right from the bat, it will take time. You can use low to medium level storm release techniques with lightning and water alone. Combining wind element will be your hardest task, and you need to do it to use high class jutsu. And as for element mastery the more you learn and master the lighting element, the easier it will be for you to pull off high level storm release jutsu**." Raiju explained.

"Wow, so when can we start?!" Naruto started jumping with excitement.

"**Easy there little fellow, I know you are excited but remember I am here to guide you only. Everything else is up to you. Guess it's time to send you back, cool your head kid, I will talk with you later**." Raiju said with a small smile.

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**Real World **

Naruto woke up a bit grumpily, he started stretching in the bed. His body was less sore but him and lying down for too long never added up. He got out of the bed and started thinking of what happened from yesterday. His life just turned upside down and he learned about himself more than he knew for the last twelve years. He was excited to know that he had two bloodlines but he needed to clear his head. Raiju was right, he needed to cool down.

With that he went out of his room. He saw an anbu just outside the door. Damn he almost forgot.

"Anbu-san, do you know in which room Iruka-sensei and Hinata is?"

"302 Iruka and 315 Hinata." After hearing that he started walking towards Iruka-sensei's room.

When he reached there, he knocked the door. "Come in." Naruto steeled his mind and went inside, time to learn what Iruka-sensei thought about this whole mess.

"Hey there Iruka-sensei." Naruto looked at the guy, his hand was covered in bandages and he had small burn mark here and there. "What happened to you?"

"Small explosive, come here I will tell you what happened." Iruka then explained to Naruto his fight with Mizuki. When he was in the mid-air and saw the incoming fuma-shuriken he used a kawarimi jutsu with a log. But after that Mizuki threw some low powered explosive tags at him. He wasn't injured badly but he got knocked out by that.

"Long live the log! Didn't I tell you the log will always save you Iruka-sensei?" Naruto laughed while Iruka became embarrassed. In the class, the jutsu Naruto was good at was kawarimi and he always boasted that the mighty log would save everyone. Guess he was right after all.

After Naruto's laughter died down, there was an awkward silence. Naruto knew that he had to bring it up but he didn't know how and Iruka knew what Naruto wanted to tell him, so he was waiting patiently for him to begin.

"Umm, Iruka-sensei, about the Kyuubi. Do you hate me for it?" Naruto looked down, too scared to look at Iruka's face.

"Naruto, I hate the Kyuubi. It killed my parents." Naruto started to shake, his eyes started to tear up. But Iruka continued, "But I don't hate you. You are Naruto Uzumaki the number one unpredictable ninja, you are not the Kyuubi. So don't let anyone tell you otherwise." Naruto was stunned. He looked up and saw Iruka was smiling warmly at him, no malice, no hatred, only concern and care was showing in his face. Naruto jumped and hugged Iruka with all his might.

"Ouch! Ouch! Naruto I am injured here buddy, slow down." Iruka cringed a bit, when Naruto let go he pulled him into a gentle hug. "No matter what anyone says, you are Naruto Uzumaki, never forget that." He whispered it softly. Naruto was in tears. He nodded a bit while holding onto him.

After a while, Iruka let go of Naruto. "Naruto close your eyes for a minute." As Naruto did that, he felt something in his forehead.

"Open your eyes." He opened his eyes and touched his forehead. He couldn't believe it, it was a hitai-te and not just any hitai-te, it was Iruka-sensei's. He looked at Iruka, "Hokage-sama said after what you did, it is only right for you to pass. I agree with him as well." Naruto was beyond happy. He did it, he finally did it!

"Thank you Iruka-sensei." Then he remembered, "Umm, Iruka sensei; why did you bring Hinata with you?" Iruka smiled, maybe this would help him.

"Naruto, it was Hinata who came to me when she saw Mizuki was lying to you. She came to me and told me everything but I was too late to stop you. Then she volunteered to find you." Naruto was taken aback. He didn't know what to say, "Why don't you go and ask Hinata herself, I am sure she will like it." Iruka advised Naruto.

"Sure, I will go see her now. Take care Iruka-sensei." With that Naruto ran out of the room. Iruka just smiled to himself, maybe this might bring those two closer.

Naruto noticed one thing. The closer he was getting to Hinata's room the slower he was becoming. He finally reached her room and knocked. When no sound came, he waited patiently for one minute, then he went in. _"I need to work on my patience."_ Naruto looked at the girl who was sleeping peacefully on the hospital bed. He went close and sat beside her. She was looking beautiful sleeping like that. _"Wait! What?" _Now Naruto started to get nervous, he just realized that he had to talk to a quiet beautiful clan heiress who seemed to admire him and he knew nothing about her.

He steeled himself and poked her cheek gently to wake her up, he was not going to back down now even though he was nervous like hell. He poked again and this time she started moving. He hurriedly sat down but for some reason he wanted to poke her cheek more. Pushing the thought aside he waited for the girl to wake up.

Hinata started to wake up when she felt some one poking her cheek. When she opened her eyes, she saw Naruto. She thought that it was maybe another one of her dreams.

"Hey Naruto-kun. How are you feeling?" She said softly while smiling at him. Naruto was speechless. Her smile was stunning and her face was not red and she was not stammering at all. She looked more gorgeous than before.

"I, um, how…. '_Why the fuck am I stammering for?!'_ How are you feeling Hinata?" he asked her with a loud voice. That made Hinata snapped out from her daze as she realized, _"This is not a dream. This is REAL!" _

"U-umm, h-hey, there N-N-Naruto-kun. How ar-are you feeling?" Hinata said while her blush came with full force. OK now this was the Hinata Naruto knew; quiet, gentle and a bit weird.

"Hey I am doing fine, how about you? I heard that you didn't get injured much. Thank god." Naruto said while giving her his real smile "_Thanks to you, Naruto-kun._" Hinata thought and she wanted to ask him why he came here but before she could say anything, Naruto looked directly at her. This stopped most of her thought process.

"Hinata did you mean everything that you said back at the forest? Even though knowing that I have the Kyuubi inside me." Naruto desperately wanted to know her answers.

Hinata knew she couldn't back down now. She took a deep breath and tried to calm her mind. She could see hope and desperations in his eyes. She had to take this step. "N-Naruto-kun, I meant every s-single thing I said back in the f-forest. You m-might not remember but w-when I was kid I got bullied and y-you came to save me and took the b-beating for me. B-but before I could say a-anything my bodyguard came and took me away. W-while he was taking me away, y-you looked hurt but yet y-you smiled at me. F-from then I no-noticed that you work harder n-no matter how many times you fail. Y-you gave your all and when you fall d-down you get back up and t-try again. For a shy and w-weak person like me, you w-were my hope." Hinata slowed down. She looked at Naruto, she was praying that Naruto didn't think of her as a failure too.

Naruto didn't know what to say, it was more like words were not coming to his mouth. Was it possible for someone to care for him like this? "Hinata, I don't know what to say." Hinata felt her heart was getting heavy. "But I know you are not weak, you stood up against a chunin. I think everyone will admire your courage for this Hinata as not many genin can stand up against a chunin right after graduating, you know. So don't think that you are weak. You are shy, yes but you are gentle. That is not bad, I think it's great." Naruto said, and smiled when he saw her smiling. "I know what to do! Would you like to be my friend?"

Hinata was never been so happy after her mother died. "Yes, I w-would like that Naruto-kun."

There was a cough behind. Naruto looked behind to see a tall pale man with long hair was standing. "O-otou-san." Hinata was surprised, she wondered for how long her father was there.

"Umm, guess it's time for me to go." Naruto knew he couldn't stay here anymore. He bowed slightly towards the Hiashi who was surprised at the gesture. Then he went to the door, but before going out, he looked at Hinata and waved, "See you later, Hinata-chan."

Hiashi was taken back. For the last few days he had been learning things about the Jinchuriki that kept on surprising him. He looked back to his daughter and sighed. She fainted with a happy smile on her face. Maybe he would come back later to take her back.

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Naruto changed his dress to some normal cloths that were left inside his room. His old cloths seemed smaller somehow. He started walking out of the hospital. In the last few hours lots of things were revealed. He knew that he might have lost his trust on Hokage-jiji but he might be able to put that trust on someone else. He also knew he had to start working hard to learn more about his storm release.

He looked up and saw the sky was clear, it was the start of a new beginning.

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**With that, chapter 3 ends, sorry for those who wanted me to put Naruto with Hinata but don't worry, I will make it up with you guys.**

**Till Next Time.**


	4. Chapter 4 : New goals

**Thank you guys for reviewing and rating the story. So for the bashing, I put the thought aside for now. But If I bash it will be a slight one. **

**Toshiro of the Eternal Dream &amp; FinalKingdomHearts: I know the **_**canon **_**storm release is of two element Lightning and Water but I put the wind element for S rank jutsu that Naruto will use later on, also more details about the bloodline will be explained later. Not gonna spoil too much but at one point maybe I will let Darui and Naruto face each other and then you guys can see the difference. Btw ****Toshiro***** nice names for the bloodline.**

**Thanks all the reviewers and hope you enjoy the new chapter**

_**Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto.**_

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Danzo was beyond pissed. He almost had the Jinchuriki, everything was perfect but Hiruzen had to foil his plan once again. He cursed his luck. He had it all planned the moment his root informed him about the explosion and Kyuubi's chakra. He thought the situation couldn't get any better. He nudged Homura and Koharu about village's safety and told them about the Kyuubi's sudden chakra spike and how it might become problematic if not handled with care. After confronting Hiruzen, he told them it would be better to ask the civilian council to come as well, he wanted to use those status hungry cowards. But then, Hiruzen countered and ruined everything by giving the responsibility of the Jinchuriki to all of the Shinobi heads equally, along with himself, making Naruto's activity fully high level Shinobi affair. Now he couldn't interfere with him directly nor could he use the other advisors or civilians.

What made him angrier was when he heard of the bloodline, a rare one at that. Now he had the right to start his own clan. It wasn't discussed on the meeting but he knew full well that it would be discussed on the upcoming ones. And with a strong and rare bloodline like that, all the clan heads would favor him. Without the civilian council's backup, the advisors wouldn't be having any power over the boy. He had to start making his move now because he knew the boy would be a powerful pawn if he could get him. But he had to give it to Hiruzen; he knew how to counter his goals.

"Guess the old monkey still has some fire left."

It didn't matter though, he had to start with one of his backup plan. He just hoped he could make it in time.

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**With Naruto**

Naruto woke up feeling refreshed. After he came back from the hospital he went to bed directly. He felt too exhausted after learning all the new stuffs from the last two days. He stretched a bit and then went to his wardrobe, one of the most important things he learned that ….. he needed to buy new cloths, most became too small for him after the growth spurt.

"**Why all orange jumpsuit? Don't you have any actual ninja gear?**" Raiju was surprised when he saw that all of the cloths were bright orange.

Naruto didn't know what to say, he didn't know if Raiju would like his reason behind wearing orange cloths. "**No, I don't like your reasoning behind it. And before you ask, did you forget that I can hear your thoughts?**" Raiju stated simply.

Naruto was surprised first, and then he felt dejected. He wanted people to acknowledge him, to see him not as the Kyuubi-brat but as for who he was, as Naruto Uzumaki. That was why he did all the pranks and wore these bright color cloths.

"**Your goal is humble and just for a kid but you must know that people will like you for who you are on their own. I know I am being a bit harsh but why do you want the same people** **that abuses you without knowing or seeing the real you to recognize you? Take that Hinata girl and Iruka for example, just by being yourself they came to acknowledge you. Take time and think about it, but I would suggest that you at least change your appearance.**" With that Raiju stopped because he knew that Naruto needed time to rethink about his ways of life.

When Naruto didn't feel Raiju's presence anymore, he slowly took his frog wallet and started heading toward market area.

"He is kind of right, I didn't even approach Hinata and she admires me, and Iruka-sensei cares for me for who I am, not because I act like this." He thought to himself, maybe he needed to change a bit, he thought that he should start with his attire like what Raiju said. He always wanted to look a bit badass ninja but as for the pranks.

"Oh no! The pranking stays." He chucked to himself darkly.

Iruka and all the anbu felt a chill going down their spine. A storm was coming, a wicked one at that. They didn't know how they knew but it was coming.

Before Naruto reached the market area, he stopped. It was his first time but he wanted to use his ninja skills to make his life easier. He went into an alley and henged to a different version of himself. He had this idea for quite some time but he didn't get to test it.

He had the same height and weight but his hair color changed to black and it was less spiky and his eye color changed from blue to brown also he made sure his whisker marks in his cheek was not visible anymore.

He went into the cloths store first and started looking for more ninja-ish items. This store is called "Chainmail" and it was one of the best shops for ninja gear in Konoha but every time he came before they overcharged him so much that he couldn't buy anything. He just hoped it would be different this time, with that he chose his cloths and items and gave it in the counter. In the counter there was an old man, who smiled at him and told him the total price, he even gave him a discount because of his age.

Naruto paid him but inside he was hurt, that same man overcharged him all the time but now that he changed his appearance he was being treated normally. He thought of Raiju's words and then to himself, was all these acting really worth it?

He just shook his head and went into other stores, he got lots of things to buy and for once he might be able to buy them all.

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**Few Hours Later**

After Naruto was done with his shopping he made one clone and sent it back with his stuffs. Right now he was walking around the town, it was a fresh feeling without all the glares and scowls, but it was sad as well cause from what he was seeing as long as he was NOT Naruto he wouldn't be abused or glared at. **Why **people hate him? That was the questions he had for the past few years but now he knew the answer for the hatred, but he still had a few more question. **Why** was he chosen? **Where **was his family?

He stopped in front of the park. He saw kids playing while their parents were fondly looking after them from a bit far. The tenderness in the parents' eyes, something he never knew.

"Raiju-san, can I ask you something?" Naruto wanted to confirm this one last time.

"**Go ahead kid.**" Raiju was a bit surprised with sudden determined voice of Naruto.

"Raijin-san will tell me about my family if I can pass his test, right?" Raiju chuckled a bit, "**Yes Naruto. If you can pass his test and impress him, I am sure he will answer all the questions that you have.**"

"What is this test? Can you give me a heads up on what I have to do?" Naruto asked while heading towards the Hokage Mountain.

"**For now you just have to get stronger by A LOT and strengthen your will and courage. Why do you ask kid?**" After hearing that Naruto closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Because now I know what I have to do, NO. What I _want_ to do. I will become stronger than now and I_ will_ pass the test. I will find out who my family is and everything about them and the best way to do that is through this way."

Raiju became interested at the kid's declaration. "**What about being Hokage?**" Naruto thought for a bit, "I still want to be the Hokage but I am not sure if I wanna do it for the acknowledgement, maybe I will just wait and see. But for now my goal is to become stronger to prove my worth and to know my past. Will you please help me, Raiju-san?" Naruto pleaded, he knew he couldn't get stronger alone, not to the level to please a god.

Before Raiju could answer, suddenly lots of memories started to flow through Naruto's mind. Memories of him keeping his new ninja gears at home, going to the ramen shop, meeting Hinata and after that meeting Sakura who smacked him in the head and that was where the memories stopped.

"What was all that?" Naruto was confused, finally reaching the top of the mountain. The memories felt so real as if he just did those.

Raiju looked back at Naruto's memories to see what he did earlier, after seeing that he asked Naruto to make another clone and tell it do something that normally he wouldn't do.

Hearing that Naruto made a clone and looked at it wickedly.

"Boss, what's wrong?" The clone asked nervously.

"I am sorry my fellow brother." With that Naruto pushed the clone from the top of the Hokage Mountain.

"FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK YOOOOOOOU BOOOOOOOOOOOOSS!"

Real Naruto waited for a bit and suddenly images of him falling from the mountain and hitting the ground came to him.

Raiju sweatdropped, "**This is what you always wanted to do?**" Naruto gave a shrug.

Sighing, Raiju just shook his head. "**Well it seems you can get the knowledge from your shadow clones when they get dispelled. Why not make a few more and **_**try**_** to make some actual use of it this time**." Naruto nodded and then he made some shadow clones but before he could say anything all of them dispelled themselves. Naruto and Raiju sweatdropped seeing this.

"Guess I have to go down first."

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**With Hinata **

Hinata was coming back from the academy. The team selection had been postponed to next week for some unforeseen problems but she knew it was cause of Mizuki. While she was returning, she met Naruto but before they could get pass the greetings, Sakura came and it ended up same like every time. Naruto asking Sakura to eat with him and she punched him in the head after rejecting him harshly. But to their surprise Naruto just went 'poof'. She glared at Sakura and walked past her with a small scowl on her face. She was hoping to spend some time with Naruto, guess she wasn't lucky today.

"Hey, Hinata-chan." She spun around to see Naruto coming towards her, it seemed she was wrong about her luck. After seeing Naruto, she became nervous and started fidgeting as usual.

Naruto looked at Hinata, from the memories he knew about the postponing of the team selection because of his clone and Hinata's earlier interaction. He wanted to go after Sakura but after receiving the clone's memories of the punch he got for asking her out, he thought maybe it wouldn't be a good idea so he came after Hinata. At least she wouldn't hit him that hard.

"Hey Hinata-chan, want to go eat lunch with me?" Naruto was hoping she could say yes.

Hinata was overjoyed. Naruto just asked her out to eat with him. Her, with Naruto, eat together. _"ALONE!"_

"Yes, of course!" She semi-shouted. Seeing Naruto surprised, she got embarrassed. "I-I would l-like that Na-Naruto-kun." She repeated herself with the usual shy voice this time.

Hearing that Naruto's heart jumped with joy and being energetic he is, without a second thought he grabbed Hinata's hand and started running towards Ichiraku's place. Hinata thought she was going to faint but running fast helped her to stay conscious.

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**Ichiraku's Place**

Naruto was enjoying his time, Hinata was listening to everything he was saying patiently and giggling and laughing at his jokes, not the sarcasm ones he used to get on the academy, add that with ramen and he was having a great time. He was also asking her about her life and trying to know her more. She stuttered and her face turned red from time to time, like she was sick or something which made him worried but she said it was ok. She asked about earlier and Naruto told her about the shadow clone.

Speaking of shadow clone, after he learned about the memory transfer, he was hoping his little project to work. After going down the mountain, he made few clones. Two clones he ordered them to henge and go to the library to find out everything about Uzumaki clan, two he ordered to henge into the guards he always saw outside of the Konoha gate and their part was to research about lightning element. And the last one he told him to go find Iruka-sensei and ask him about shadow clones. If this would work, Raiju said he would be able to use this in training to cover a lot of grounds.

"N-Naruto-kun, do you know the t-team f-formation has been postponed till n-next week?" Hinata asked her crush.

"Yup, thanks for telling me Hinata-chan." He thought for a bit then asked nervously, "Hey Hinata-chan, if you want, you know, maybe we could train together this week." He was hoping her to say yes, he never had a training partner before.

Inside Hinata was jumping with joy, she knew what her answer was but still she had to ask her father. "I w-would love t-that N-Naruto-kun, but let me a-ask my father f-first, ok?" Naruto agreed, at least she didn't reject her directly. Maybe her father might let her train with him, if he was lucky.

After they were done with their lunch, Naruto said good-bye to Hinata. She told him to come to Hyuuga clan's place tomorrow in the morning. He didn't want to get his hopes up because most of the adults didn't like him and what if Hinata's father was like that also. Guess he would see when he went to her place tomorrow.

While thinking about all this, suddenly memories of him talking with Iruka came into his mind. He already knew that shadow clone was a B rank kinjutsu but from what his clone learned, these clones were physical instead of illusion. The user's chakra was evenly distributed among every clone giving each clone an equal fraction of the user's overall power but they took too much chakra and for that people could die of chakra exhaustion if they didn't use this jutsu properly. What got his attention was that any experience his clones would get during their time, when they dispelled those would be transferred to him, even the left over chakra of the clones. They were great for spying and information gathering but only jonin level Shinobi could pull them off cause of the risk. After learning all this, he dashed to his home. He got to tell this to Raiju.

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**Naruto's Place**

After Naruto reached his home, he sat down and started to concentrate. He opened his eyes to see he was on the Hokage Mountain, and Raiju was lying down with his eyes closed.

"**I know what you want to discuss kid, try to keep your excitement down otherwise even if I don't want to I will hear your thoughts. We will have to work on this if you want your privacy.**" Naruto was embarrassed after hearing that, Raiju just chuckled a bit, "**But this will come in handy, with your chakra you can use plenty of those clones without getting exhausted. Guess we have to wait for your other two groups to finish their research to make your training routine.**"

Raiju cracked one of his eyes open and looked at Naruto, "**In the meantime, do you want to learn anything?**"

Naruto thought for a second then he beamed up, "Raiju-san, can you tell me about yourself." Raiju was now fully awake, he knew Naruto would ask about him but not this soon. He looked at Naruto and saw him looking at him with excitement and expected eyes. Raiju just smiled to himself and adjusted himself so he was facing Naruto now.

"**Long story kid, but guess we have time. But you have to promise me on your nindo that you will not tell anyone about this without my consent.**" Raiju warned softly.

"I promise on my nindo, Raiju-san." Hearing Naruto's response he continued, "**I will skip some parts but don't worry I will tell you about those later. Hmm, where should I start from? Let's go with the Bijuu, you should know that Kyuubi is not the only Bijuu. There are total nine of them, and to humans they are known by their tails.**" Naruto was taken aback, eight more creatures like Kyuubi. Now that was frightening.

"**They were created from a dark entity's chakra and so to balance it out after some time we were created from nature.**"

"We?" Naruto asked, there are more like Raiju? "**Yes Naruto, there were total twelve of us. We were known as Zodiac beasts. Salamander, Chameleon, Snake, Toad, Slug, Wolf, Tiger, Eagle, Whale, Monkey, Panda and Ox. Most of them created their own den in various places around the world and started their clan, hopefully you will meet some of them in your journey. And as for some of us we were chosen by different gods to be their companion based on what we did in our past.**" Naruto was amazed learning all this,

"So, Raijin-san choose you? COOL! What did you do?" For a second Raiju made a sad face but it was gone in a flash, "**I will tell about that later, for now I hope you hold onto your promise not to tell anyone about this.**"

"Of course, I promise I won't tell anyone about this without telling you and you know I don't back down on my promise." Raiju smiled at Naruto, before they can continue memories of learning about lightning elements flashed through Naruto's mind.

"**Guess we have to start preparing your training schedule for the week**." Naruto nodded and started to sort out what he saw from his memories.

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**Next Morning **

Naruto was waiting outside the Hyuuga gate, he told one of the guards why he came here and he was told to wait. He was becoming more nervous with each passing minute, what if Hinata wasn't allowed to train with him but after five minute to his relief Hinata came smiling with a backpack.

"G-Good morning, N-Naruto-kun." Hinata was glad that her father approved of this.

"Good morning Hinata-chan." Naruto let go of his breath. "Guess we are training together for this week."

"A-actually my f-father said I can t-train with you till e-early evening. A-after that I have to r-return home." Hinata was hoping Naruto didn't mind about this.

"OK, cool! Guess we have to train extra hard with the time we got. Let's go…." But sound of Naruto's stomach stopped everything,

"Breakfast first?" Naruto asked while scratching his head with embarrassment. Hinata giggled softly but she nodded.

Inside the clan compound, Hiashi watched everything with his eyes. He remembered the talk he had with his eldest daughter yesterday night.

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Flashback

"_F-Father, can I come in?" Hiashi looked from his paper to see his daughter in the door. He motioned her to come. She came and sat in front of him._

"_Father, the team formation was p-postponed till next week for the problems Mizuki c-caused." Hiashi looked at his daughter carefully. She was not sluttering that much and while there was nervousness but it was vague. The most interesting thing was that she was looking at him directly with firmness in her eyes. "When was the last time she did that?" thought Hiashi._

"_Hinata, is there anything you want?"_

_Hinata was taken aback. She knew she couldn't twiddle with this, she had to come clean with her father now. Clenching her fists tightly she asked, _

"_Father, can I train this week with my f-friend?" Hiashi was not stupid, he knew which friend she was talking about._

"_This friend of yours, is it Naruto Uzumaki?" Seeing Hinata nodded, he looked at her and to his surprise Hinata didn't look away. The stare down between them continued for a minute._

"_Ok, you can." Hiashi finally broke the ice, "But I want you to be back before evening and I will see your progress after the week. If I see you progressed far, then you may continue your training with him on your free time. But, if I see that you didn't improve at all, then you are not to meet with him again." Hiashi told in a hard tone, he wanted to see how far this could go._

_Hinata was scared, what if she failed. She wouldn't be able to meet Naruto again. But despite her fear, she steeled her resolve. _

_She took a deep breath, "Thank you father and I promise I won't disappoint you."_

_Hiashi nodded and after that Hinata left. He looked back at the paper at his hand but for some reason his mind was focusing on more about what would happen on the upcoming week than the task at hand._

Flashback Ends

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Hiashi watched his daughter leaving with Naruto, he might be able to bring her out of her shell. She _did _stand up against a chunin for him and talked to him without hesitation and fear. He turned off his byakugan and went back inside hoping her daughter could handle what was coming to her.

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**Training Ground**

Naruto and Hinata came to an old training ground. It was small and damaged so not much people come here to use this place. Naruto looked at Hinata and saw her putting her bag down and started stretching. Naruto thought back of what Raiju said last night.

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Flashback

"_Raiju-san, do you have any tips that can help us if Hinata comes to train with me tomorrow?" Naruto said after he sorted out his memories he got of Uzumaki clan. He found lots of interesting things and couldn't wait to try them out. But when he remembered about Hinata, he became confused. He asked her to train with him on a whim but now that he thought about it, he didn't know what to do or what would be good to help both of them. _

"_**Hmm, I know what you are worried about kid. But do remember even though I said I will guide you, I am not going to give you everything on a silver platter, you have to work hard yourself. But for this try to exchange ideas of how to get stronger, but before that find out what are your weaknesses and what you are lacking. If both of you know each other's weaknesses, you might be able to help each other, discuss it out. That's all I can say for now. And one more thing, I won't be talking with you while you are training unless it is urgent, don't want to intrude on your private time.**__"_

_Naruto was confused at first about what he meant by private time but he put the thought aside for now and started thinking of training methods that could help them to get stronger._

Flashback Ends

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"Hey Hinata-chan, can I ask you something?" Seeing Hinata nodding he continued, "What are your weak points and strong points?" Hinata was shocked, did Naruto think of her as a weakling too? Before Hinata's thought could go anymore haywire,

"I mean for me I just know shadow clones, I suck at genjutsu, don't know much about taijutsu and as for weapons I don't know much but I think I will try to learn kenjutsu." After finishing, Naruto looked at Hinata expectedly.

Hinata's fear slowly subsided, shaking away her nervousness she replied, "I know g-gentle fist style of taijutsu a-and basic academy jutsu, as for g-genjutsu it doesn't work cause of my b-bloodline. I don't know any other ninjutsu and I don't know much about weapons." Hinata said while looking down. For her to admit this to her crush, it was painful.

Naruto thought for a moment, yesterday night he sent more shadow clones to the library to know what would be a good way to start training. He found some really good pointers, he hoped those could help.

"Guess we know what our weaknesses are so now all we have to do is to help each other out on these." Naruto smiled at Hinata, seeing that she slowly started to feel better.

"First I learned that a good genin should know about chakra control, first would be tree-walking. Do you know about that Hinata-chan?" Naruto asked.

"Yes I do know about t-that, N-Naruto-kun. For Hyuuga it is one of the basic things for g-gentle fist." Hearing that Naruto knew what to do, he made five shadow clones and ordered them to go do tree-climbing.

"With that out of the way, do you want to spar with me, Hinata-chan?" Hinata nodded.

They took their stance. Naruto knew he didn't have much of a chance of beating Hinata, her gentle fist style was supposed to be one of the best taijutsu style and on the other hand he knew only basic academy style taijutsu. The moment the battle started, Naruto dashed toward her to have the first hit, but to his surprise Hinata dodged it easily. Naruto kept the momentum and kept throwing random punches and kicks but Hinata dodged them all. After a few minutes, Hinata's movement became sloppy and he was able to hit her with a good punch to her stomach. Hinata bend down and fell to the ground.

Hinata looked at Naruto and saw him angry. "Why didn't you fight back? I couldn't hit you in the beginning, if you wanted you could have beat me. Am I not good enough for a sparring partner?" Naruto was angry, it was like an insult to him. He was giving his all and Hinata was holding back.

Hinata was surprised; she thought he would be disappointed but not angry for this. "No, no. I-I just didn't w-wanted to h-hurt you." She barely whispered, tears already forming in her eyes.

"What do you mean by that? We are sparring Hinata-chan and if you hold back against your opponent who is giving everything he got, it's like an insult to him. You are hurting me to get better Hinata-chan." His voice became soft at the end. He went beside her and kneeled down.

"Hinata-chan, do you want to be strong?" he asked her softly, seeing her nodding he smiled.

"Then don't hold back. Give me everything you got and more, you said you admire me because I never back down, right? Then be like me. Don't back down and don't hold back. If you hurt me now, you will make me stronger so that I do not get killed in the outside world. If you think it like this way, you are hurting me in a friendly way to protect me from real harm." Hearing this Hinata became stunned, she never thought about it like this.

"One more time, Na-Naruto-kun." She said with determined voice.

"Way to go, let's keep on going till one of us falls over."

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**Few Hours Later**

Naruto was lying down on the ground, he didn't have one bit of energy to do anything.

"Who the hell called this style gentle fist, there is nothing gentle about this. They should have named it poking-dagger style or piercing-finger style." Naruto grumbled.

Out of all the matches only on the last one he was able to deliver some attacks to Hinata, all the other time she took a steady stance and hit him hard when he got close, real hard, making her the winner. And few minutes ago, his clones dispelled themselves so he got the experience of tree-walking. It was not fully done but he was almost there.

Hinata was also lying down on the ground; she knew Naruto had energy but until today she didn't knew how much. Any other person would be to the hospital by now after getting their chakra point shut down and reopened so many times. Last match, Naruto accidentally touched her breast. She got so embarrassed that she thought she was going to faint if Naruto didn't follow up with a punch to her shoulder. She quickly snapped herself out of her embarrassment but Naruto was able to deliver few more attacks, she was forced to move around the field avoiding his attacks while hitting him unlike standard gentle fist. Fighting like this was kind of refreshing and fun. She just hoped she could be strong enough to pass whatever her father would throw at her at the end of the week.

"Hey Hinata-chan, what was the last style you used?" Seeing Hinata confused, he elaborated, "The one where I almost beat you. You started moving around instead of staying still and hit me while avoiding the attacks. It was so cool!" Hinata's face flushed with the compliment.

"It's not gentle fist style, N-Naruto-kun, it was just some random movement." Hinata answered sourly, she was not good at gentle fist cause instead of staying still on one place she felt better if she moved around, that felt more natural to her.

"I think this suits you better, why not combine it with the poking-dagger style." Hinata giggled hearing the nickname Naruto gave to their gentle fist, but then she stopped. Could she do it? Upgrading gentle fist style in a way that would be more suitable for her to use.

"I mean you are quite fast and reflexive, and this would make you more deadly, you know. Dodge and hit." Naruto said while he tried to get up. _"Damn this hurt!"_ He thought.

"_Is it possible, it sounds so difficult? What if the clan doesn't approve of this, what if…."_ Then she saw Naruto trying to stand up, he was clearly in pain but despite that he stood up. She felt so small comparing to him.

"_No. No more what ifs, I will try my best to make this happen."_ She looked at Naruto to see him extending his hand while smiling. She smiled back at him and took his hand.

"N-Naruto-kun, can you help me c-create this new s-style?" She was scared a bit even though she knew what the answer was going to be, she still felt nervous.

"Of course, Hinata-chan. We are both in this together, aren't we?" Naruto said while stretching his body. Hinata smiled. Yes, she could do it. _"I WILL do this"._

She looked at Naruto; she knew what to do and what her new goal was.

"Lunch?" Naruto asked. Hinata replied, "Ichiraku's?"

Naruto smiled at her.

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**With this chapter 4 is done. Just like I said, some NaruHina moments for not putting Naruto on her team. And as for the Zodiac beasts, I know the original ones are NOT these but to make the story more interesting later, I added these beasts. I will bring new beast sages at later part of the story.**

**I already know a few which I will be needing for the story but not sure about the rest. Please do tell which beast sage you want me to put in the story, some of them will be divine beast.**

**Till Next time.**


	5. Chapter 5 : Training, Matches & Sensei

**Hello there guys and thanks for the reviews and ratings.**

**Buterflypuss, Rose Tiger, FinalKingdomHearts, Ayrmed, fu . . . Thanks guys, hope you enjoy the chapter.**

**Toshiro of the Eternal Dream : yup there will be an explanation to show how much more awesome Naruto's storm release is than the canon one.**

**Ryuujin96 : I will try to put more NaruHina moments and about the other part, guess you have to find out yourself, I already thought about that :P**

**Kamen Rider Zero-Ohki: Sssshhh, don't spoil. I was going to do it :P**

_**Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto.**_

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This was the fourth day of their training together. Naruto waited while Hinata was preparing their breakfast. He liked this kind of feeling, no need to use the false smile or to be someone that you were not. On the first day he learned that Hinata wanted to make her own style of gentle fist with his help also about the condition her father gave her. He was pissed at first, but then Hinata said it was ok and not to worry about it. Hinata's dad was now on the top of his getting-pranked-hard list. After that they explored their weaknesses more accurately and made key points on how to get stronger.

For Hinata, she had good chakra control but her chakra reserve was limited and her stamina was low. So for starter, she woke up early in the morning and jogged around Konoha with Naruto to increase her stamina. She also learned that she needed to be more flexible for her style to work, Naruto helped her on that by letting her fight with five of his shadow clones at once. She knew she could improve her chakra control but she waited for Naruto to finish his tree-walking, and he just finished it the day before. Now they could do the water-walking together. And as for ninjutsu both of them started on their elemental training, although to her Naruto was cheating by using shadow clones but she was catching up to him with her superior chakra control and extra training she did in her house at the night.

As for our blond hero, he found out that he had to do lots of work to catch up with everyone. For what he learned that almost everyone had some training from their homes or clans. Even in academy they were taught with care where he was neglected. But right now he knew that he was progressing but he didn't know if that was enough or not. He helped Hinata with her morning routine while he sent his clone to brush up his taijutsu, he needed to know something better than the stupid academy style which was practically useless against strong style like Hinata's gentle fist. But he started to learn kenjutsu and he learned that he had a knack for it. He even found a really good kenjutsu style. It all started on the night of their first training day when he went to Iruka's place for help.

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Flashback

"_Hey, Iruka-sensei, you there?" Naruto was knocking on his sensei's door. _

"_Ya, ya, I am here Naruto." Iruka said opening the door. "What are you doing here so late at night?" _

_Naruto fidgeted for a bit before answering, "Iruka-sensei, can you help me learn kenjutsu?" _

_Iruka was surprised. Naruto was asking for something advance for a genin, not that he minded it on the contrary he was actually glad, "Why do you want to learn kenjutsu, Naruto?" But he still needed to know his reason._

"_You know I started training with Hinata-chan from today and we are gonna train together till next week before the team selection. But while training I saw that I don't know anything except shadow clone and as for Hinata, she knows this great kick ass style taijutsu and not only her but from what I learned that most of my classmates have strong techniques on their own. So I wanted to learn something cool and strong too." Iruka chuckled a bit and motioned him to come inside._

Flashback Ends

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Next day, Iruka gave Naruto a few beginner's scroll of various kenjutsu styles. All of them were good but the one he liked the most was 'The Twin Moon' style. It felt so perfect, so natural to him. It used two swords and the style was spontaneous and somehow it just went with his style. But the problem was it was a rare style and only one of the techniques was written there, even Iruka couldn't get his hand on anymore of its techniques and the history behind it was quite vague. Iruka gave him strong practice wooded swords not the real one and he made Naruto promise not to look for real swords until he got his jonin sensei. He agreed to it and started learning the kenjutsu style. Each night he would make twenty to thirty shadow clones and practiced the basic sword techniques and the 'twin moon' style one as well.

Naruto told Hinata about it and she was happy to hear that. Things were going good for Naruto till he learned about her father and his condition, he was pissed. He wanted to pound the guy, it was not like he was going to eat Hinata (A/N: Not yet anyway, if you know what I mean). But after she cooled him down, he told her that they were going to increase their training and she agreed. So they added nature element training to their routine. So now they had physical training, sparring, chakra training and element training. Although at night, he trained kenjutsu by himself and Hinata told him that she trained on the element training back at her home. He was kind of surprised to find out what her element was.

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Flashback

"_Hinata-chan, do you know what your element is?" Naruto asked her after getting his ass owned by the cursed poking-dagger style, again. _

"_N-No, I don't know, Naruto-kun." Hearing that he pulled out a paper and gave it her. She took it but looked at Naruto with confusion while tilting her head to the side. _

_Suddenly, Naruto thought Hinata looked too damn cute and he wanted….."No, no, no, no," he shook his head, "What the hell is wrong with me?"_

"_You concentrate your chakra into the paper and depending on your element the paper will react differently." Hinata nodded hearing that, _

"_How d-did you get t-that Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked,_

"_Iruka-sensei." Naruto replied while giving a victory pose. Hinata giggled and then concentrated her chakra into the paper. After few seconds later the paper got wet. _

"_Wow. So you got water as your primary element. Cool. Now we can start our element training together." Naruto grinned while holding some leaves._

Flashback Ends

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Now back to Naruto, who was resting after getting his ass owned AGAIN by the cursed poking-dagger style, he looked at the sky. All he hoped that he could reach his goal, Raiju said that he was progressing well but he was still nervous. The scariest part was that he didn't know when Raijin was going to test him, it might be today or it might be tomorrow. Raiju assured him that he would be tested when the time was right so he didn't need to be so edgy. He broke out from his thought and looked at Hinata to see that she looked fresh now meaning it was time to start the chakra training.

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**Few Hours Later**

They practiced water-walking on a nearby pool. There was only knee-deep water, so they didn't get too wet. They almost got it right but they kept it for tomorrow, because they needed their chakra for the element exercise. So after eating lunch at Ichiraku's place, they came back to their training ground for the final exercise.

"How far have you gone on your elemental training, Hinata-chan?" Naruto inquired, he learned from Iruka that first step for the elemental training for lightning was to crumple a leaf so much that it would be half the size and for water to take a dry leaf and soaking it completely in one go.

"A-almost done, how about you, Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked. Training with Naruto was not only helping her with her strength but also it was boosting her self-confidence. She was getting confident day by day after spending time with Naruto alone though she still blushed when he came close but she started to stutter less and becoming less nervous.

"Me too, I can almost make the leaf wrinkle fully but not every time, guess need a bit more practice."

Hinata nodded and started doing her own training, for her she had to take a dry leaf and soak it fully using her chakra but she had to do it in one go, not bit by bit. She saw Naruto using five clones who are helping him with the training which made her pout slightly, to her that was considered cheating and so to catch up with him on the elemental training, she also trained when she went back at home. Although she was careful enough not to let his family or clan members saw that. Her father was usually busy with training Hanabi as usual and for once she was thankful for that.

"Wohoooo, I did it." No sooner one of the Naruto said that another one threw a kunai at him dispelling him instantly.

"Hmm, I think I got the hang of it." Said the one who threw the kunai as he seemed to be the real one. Seeing this other Naruto sweatdropped, one even murmured, "Tyrant." Hinata giggled to herself, she cherished these small moments. She just hoped she could enjoy more of these kinds of moments in the future.

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**Naruto's Home**

Naruto was lying down as he was too tired to even move. Today he and Hinata got the first step of the elemental training down. After he came back, he rested for an hour and then went back to the training ground alone where he made twenty shadow clones and practiced twin moon style kenjutsu for three hours straight. There was one technique he liked but it was hard to control so he knew that he needed more practice. His whole body felt numb with the excessive training but he knew he could handle it. Three more days to go till the break was over.

"**Hanging in there, kid?**" Hearing that Naruto just groaned, Raiju chuckled a bit. "**I must say I am impressed with the progress you made. Especially in your kenjutsu but seeing that you have Uzumaki blood, it is to be expected.**" Naruto just smiled a bit but he was too damn tired to even answer.

Seeing this Raiju got an idea, "**Hey kid, how about this? If you can learn that kenjutsu technique and finish the second step of the lightning element training by the end of the week, I will teach you a storm release technique that can be used by swords.**"

Naruto jumped and sat down. "Are you serious? I mean you are going to teach me a storm release technique." Naruto exclaimed.

"**Only if you can fulfill the two conditions I just gave you.**"Raiju responded. Naruto wanted to jump around and shout but he thought he was going to do that tomorrow, with that he fell back to his bed and was asleep less than a minute.

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**Three Day's Later**

Naruto was getting ready, he wore his new outfit and put the two wooden swords on their places, for the twin moon style even the sword had to be put in a unique way. One had to be put in the waist and the other one at the opposite side but instead of waist he had to put it in his back and according to the scroll it was done to give more flexibility to the style. As for Naruto now, he was excited because last night he was able to finish both element exercise and a few kenjutsu techniques. First was known as "Intercepting step" and the second one was the one of the basic of twin moon style which was drawing swords "Loose Scissor". After seeing that Raiju congratulated him and told him he was going to teach him his first storm release technique.

Today was the team selection day but first he had to go fetch Hinata as today was the day her father would give her some stupid test and she had to pass it.

"What a load of bullshit!"

Yesterday night Hinata requested him to come to her house to witness whatever test she would receive, she said that her father was ok with it and without a second thought he agreed to it. He went out and started heading toward the Hyuuga clan compound. If anything went wrong he was going to use the swords for a different use.

When he reached the place, he saw Hinata standing outside the gate but instead of wearing her baggy cream-colored jacket she was wearing light lavender-colored one similar to the tint in her eye and her pant that reached her knee had almost the same color as her hair but lighter and all of this was showing her growing figure as well as her stunning beauty but for some reason Naruto felt to growl and it almost formed in his throat but stopped before actually doing it. He just shook his head, he might need Iruka-sensei's advice on this, cause to him he was becoming weirder and somewhat ….… feral around Hinata day by day.

When Hinata looked up and saw Naruto coming, she couldn't help but feel her blush coming at full force. He was wearing short sleeve light jacket with dark and orange mixed in it (Shippuden's jacket with short sleeve) and inside he was wearing a tight chainmesh that reached his elbow which was enhancing his well-endowed bicep. He was wearing fingerless gloves and a black pant with dark orange stripes almost reaching his ankle. He had one sword in his right waist and another one at his left back. She couldn't look at his eyes after seeing making her miss the feral look that flashed in his eye for a second.

"H-Hello, Naruto-kun. Thank you for c-coming." Hinata told him but her eyes were still on the ground.

Mistaking Hinata's gesture as nervousness, he playfully nudged her making her shook up a bit. "No need to worry, Hinata-chan. You will kick ass and we both know it." Naruto smiled seeing her red face decreasing. Hinata relaxed her posture and smiled at Naruto. She motioned him to follow her and led him to the Hyuuga's private dojo.

Naruto saw Hinata's prick-off a father and few other old people, who clearly seemed like they had sticks up their asses, were sitting there and despite wanting to shove both of his swords on her father's ass, he bowed slightly. There were some other Hyuugas on the side but the one that caught his attention was one boy looked slightly older than him. The reason he caught his attention because he looked disgustedly at Hinata for second and then his face became stoic again. Naruto stood on one side while Hinata went in the middle of the dojo when her father motioned her and directly on the opposite side, another girl came who looked like she didn't know how to smile at all.

"_Man all of them are stuck-up pricks except Hinata." _

Hiashi returned the bow but he saw clearly how agitated Naruto was but he couldn't clarify the reason. He motioned both of his daughters to come at the middle of the dojo. The test for Hinata was to fight against Hanabi and show her improvement but to elders actually it was not to disappoint them meaning that they already thought Hinata was going to lose but they were hoping that she wouldn't lose that badly.

"Hajime."

Hanabi with the traditional gentle fist style dashed toward Hinata and like the previous fights Hinata had with her sister, she dodged. Seeing this Hiashi sighed knowing it was going to end up like every time but what he didn't expect was for Hinata to actually strike WHILE dodging. Him and the elders were surprised to see Hinata dodging all the attacks and at the same time hitting Hanabi in the minor chakra points that were less painful but it was slowing her down bit by bit.

A minute later Hanabi was panting hard, her major chakra points were not closed but lots of her small ones were which made it harder for her to move. She got annoyed and charged at her sister but instead of dodging Hinata dashed toward her but before she could retort or do anything, Hinata swiftly moved to her side and chopped her on the neck knocking her down.

Everyone was shocked and why wouldn't they be? Hinata just beat Hanabi without much trouble. Hiashi looked at both of his daughters and clearly saw Hanabi was unconscious but before he could say anything, an elder beat him to it.

"While I appreciate that you beat your sister, your fighting style is outrageous. We wanted to see your progress on your gentle fist not some street brawling."

"What the hell is your problem you old prick." Naruto shouted. "She won and you are not satisfied?"

Before elder could retort, Hiashi stood up.

"Uzumaki-san, please be calm and as for Hinata, I am glad that you won your fight but we were hoping to see your improvement on gentle fist."

"She beat her sister AND her gentle fist, shouldn't that be enough?" Naruto growled but kept his voice down.

A few elders chuckled which fueled his anger more. "Boy, Hanabi is just learning gentle fist and while she is good at it, she has long way to go." One elder said.

"Why not let Neji fight against Hinata and then everything will be cleared." The first elder proposed.

Hearing that the boy that glared at Hinata smirked and Hinata became nervous and looked at Naruto for support. "You can do it, Hinata-chan." Naruto cheered, _"How bad that stuck up teme can be?"_

Hiashi scowled at the elders. All he wanted was to make sure Hinata made some progress and while he agreed with the elders about the fighting style he was still impressed of the massive improvement Hinata made in one week but elders were not happy, not because she became victorious but how she obtained it.

Hiashi looked at her daughter for confirmation. She nodded but there was a small fear in her. He motioned Neji to come and he did so. After coming at the middle of the dojo, Neji took the gentle fist stance.

"Hajime."

Now Hinata knew that Neji was a strong opponent and he saw her movements before which meant she needed to speed up or it would be over fast. She was glad that at least Neji wasn't spouting about fate for now. And as for Neji he knew he got this fight, Hinata might be flexible but the thing was her previous battle did not put any damage on her but because of it she was short on breath. And he was called prodigy for nothing. He saw Hinata was pushing her limit to move faster than her last battle and it hurt his ego to admit that she was hard to hit, for now. He knew Hinata was going to tire out soon and the match would be set then.

Hinata was trying her best to dodge the onslaught of her cousin's chakra enhanced attacks; they were more precise, deadly and faster than Hanabi. He hit some of her chakra points already and she knew she couldn't keep on going like this. The only reason she lasted this long was because Naruto was here and somehow that was giving her the determination and power to go on. With last bit of her strength, she dashed towards Neji and seeing him go on the attack she parried by crouching down and hit the chakra point on his thighs and waist but before she could press the attack Neji dashed backwards and without giving one second break he dashed forward again, catching Hinata by surprise and started his assault full force. Hinata being caught by surprise and being exhausted couldn't move fast enough and she took most of the hits.

"Surrender, Hinata-sama. You are too weak to continue, you even tried to use different style because you are too weak to master true gentle fist." Neji said after he stopped his attacks, match had been decided but to Hinata's credit she was still standing, wobbling albeit.

"I...will…not…..surrender, I….will….not…back…..down." Hinata panted, she knew she lost but she wouldn't surrender.

Neji slightly looked at the elders and seeing them nodding, "So be it." He charged at Hinata and hit her right in the chest with a chakra enhanced palm, she gasped and flew back but before she hit the ground Naruto caught her.

Naruto was livid, pure rage was filling his mind. He wanted to crush the boy's face.

"What was that?" he said through is gritted teeth.

"I asked her to surrender and she did not, so it was necessary." Neji looked at Naruto and grinned a bit, "She was weak before but at least she used to use gentle fist style but I guess training with a loser she became weaker. Now she doesn't even use proper gentle fist. She is just wasting her time with you."

"I am a loser, huh? She became weaker and wasting her time with me?" Naruto said in a very low voice but then he grinned, it was not his normal grin but it was feral, it was more predatory-like.

"Then why not fight me and prove to everyone that I am loser. But if you want we can postpone our matches because you do look like a bit ragged after fighting with Hinata whom you think as weak." He challenged him.

Before Neji could answer, the first elder spoke, "Why not? You need to learn where you stand commoner. But careful because anything could happen in a sparring match, weakling like you could be seriously injured. Look at Hinata." Hearing this all the elders smirked, today they got to see Hinata beaten badly and maybe they could see the Kyuubi-brat get maimed.

Neji smirked and took his stance but his smirk stopped when he saw the pure feral look Naruto was giving him. It was like to him the match was over before it began.

Hiashi looked at the elders and just shook his head. It was supposed to be just one match between his daughters and now it was becoming a full-blown tournament.

"Please take Hinata to the infirmary." He told one branch member. "This WILL be the last match and Neji that was a SPARRING match not a tournament to maim." Neji flinched hearing that, Hiashi looked at the elders, "And elders this was to verify if Hinata improved or not in the last week and I don't remember YOU people to judge her for me. I didn't arrange this for your private pleasure. Please make sure to remember why you are here or it would seem to everyone that you are ABUSING your position. But rest assure we will talk about this later." The elders became paled a bit after hearing Hiashi's harsh tone.

Hiashi looked at the both boys and saw they were already in a fighting stance. He just sighed.

"Hajime."

Naruto's stance was grabbing his swords while crossing his hands, his left hand was on his right sword and right one on left.

"Give up, you can't do anything with that fake sword stance. Fate has made you a failure so don't make it hard on yourself and just surrender. Look at what happened to Hinata-sama." Neji started his verbal bashing.

Naruto flared first but then smirked, he wanted to play like that so be it. This last week with Hinata he was able to learn a lot about herself, her family and her clan.

"At least fate has made me a free bird. What about you?" The bait was thrown.

Neji just stood for a second to digest what Naruto told. He was beyond angry, he would kill this no-class loser. Enraged Neji dashed to him with gentle fist stance, right hand forward with open palmed to strike at his heart. But he was not as fast as he was with Hinata, his legs did received some strong hits from Hinata.

"_Perfect." _

Naruto used "Intercepting step". He knew that if he could get it right, he would win the match.

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Flashback

"_What the hell is this 'Intercepting step'? I have to take a quick dash to get my opponent into my range?" Naruto was puzzled, this one technique he thought was cool was now giving him a hard time. He just couldn't make heads or tails of what the technique was or what it did. _

"_**Naruto tell me the technique, maybe I can help.**__" Raiju spoke, it had been a while since the beast talked with Naruto as he was too busy training or lying down exhausted. _

_Naruto smiled, he missed his company, "Well it says that you have to do a small dash using one leg and land on the other to get the opponent inside your range very fast. Can't understand what it means." He was trying to use the technique but he just couldn't imagine what he would use it for._

"_**Hmm, range, huh? I think you should first know what it is, kid. Range means your battle range for your taijutsu or bukijutsu. It is the range that you are comfortable with in attacking, defending or dodging, every taijutsu or bukijutsu fighter has it. I think the technique is used to give you an initiation to get the opponent inside your battle range before they can do it with you. It seems a good move to master. If you can master this you can use this move while performing another one.**__" Raiju explained._

"_What do you mean by that?" Naruto understood the first part but not the last one._

"_**You are the unpredictable one kid, think it yourself**__." Raiju chuckled seeing Naruto grumping._

Flashback Ends

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In an instance he closed the distance between them and drew his right sword and hit Neji's outstretched right wrist the moment he landed in front of him. Naruto grinned when he heard the bone snapping. And not a second later without giving Neji any chance to pull back or retort he drew his other sword and hit his shoulder but was a bit disappointed when he didn't hear any bones breaking. Though Naruto smirked when he saw Neji's mouth widened as his stance was loosened involuntarily.

With both of his arms wide spread Neji practically dropped his full guard and was wide open, using this chance Naruto used his momentum to threw himself at him and head-butted the guy right in the neck making sure Naruto's metal hitai-te hit the spot. For few seconds nothing happened but soon Neji coughed up blood and fell forward which sealed his fate. Seeing that, Naruto threw one of his swords high up and used his free hand to grab Neji's hair and viciously kneed him right on the face. The sickening crunching sound could be heard throughout the dojo, making everyone to gasp and him to smile cruelly.

Naruto pulled Neji's head up and for the first time in his life Neji was truly afraid of someone whom he considered beneath him. The ferocious glint on Naruto's eyes, the enjoying look plastering over his face and the wicked grin he had was making him look anything but human. The stare down continued for some time as if Naruto was seeing if Neji was worth anything, it made Neji to feel small and somewhat useless. He was too petrified by Naruto's stare to fight back. Naruto hold his hair hard once more and thought it was time to finish this off.

With that he smashed his face to the ground. Neji's body shook a bit then went still.

For few seconds there was no sound in the dojo and the first sound that was heard was Naruto catching his falling sword. After that everyone snapped. The branch members dashed to Neji to mend him, the elders were seething and Hiashi was dumbfounded.

Hanabi woke up just in time to see that Hinata and Neji started to spar. She saw Hinata lasted long despite being tired and was able to corner Neji even for a second. She was happy for her sister but couldn't understand why the elders were disappointed at Hinata, she beat her AND lasted longer with the clan prodigy then her. Then the second fight started and she didn't think much of it. A no-name boy against their prodigy, the result was obviously clear that it would be a short match. It was a short match. It ended less than a full minute but the person kissing the ground was not the no-name boy.

Hanabi looked at the boy with awe, his back was facing her and it looked really intimidating. Without waiting or hearing anything, he just left toward the infirmary but he stopped at the door.

"You are right, anything can happen in a sparring match." His voice was vicious and cold. With that he left.

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With Hinata

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Hinata woke up to find that she was in the clan's infirmary. She started thinking what had happened.

"I lost to Neji-nii san." She slumped.

"Yo." Naruto waved when he entered the infirmary.

Seeing him, she smiled sadly which made Naruto to scowl at her. "Hinata-chan, don't tell me you are sad because you lost to that stuck up teme."

"It d-didn't work out like th-the way I thought. My style is inferior to o-original gentle fist and t-that is why I lost to n-Neji-ni san. Guess elders a-are right." Hinata's voice was becoming hollow but she 'eep'ed hard when Naruto suddenly got next to her and hugged her tightly.

"Don't act like that. You said you are going to follow my nindo, right? Then don't give up. Your goal was to beat your sister without hurting her too much. It worked, didn't it? But who knew that those pricks would ask you to fight again with another person. And remember that your style is not complete yet, you have long way to go and I will be helping you all the way. When your style is perfected, you will kick that teme's ass." Naruto softly said to her while released her from his hug. Hinata mentally pouted for the lack of touch but she smiled genuinely this time. He was right, she was not going to let herself down for this. She would train harder to improve her style and to make it perfect.

"Rest for a while Hinata-chan."

"B-But we will be late for ….." Before Hinata could finish Naruto give her a stern look.

"You are hurt, take rest and then we will go together and we won't be that late. Now rest." Naruto scolded. Hinata giggled at Naruto's act to seem strict. But he was right, she needed the rest as her body was really sore, _"Maybe an hour wouldn't hurt."_ She thought.

With that she relaxed and tried to sleep.

What both of them didn't notice was that Hiashi just watched their conversation and being able to perfectly read lips he understood what they talked about. He was unsure of what to do of Hinata's new improvement and her so-called new style but when he heard that it was not complete, he started thinking.

"_Maybe I will just wait and see, she did beat her sister with her imperfect style."_ Hiashi thought to himself. He went outside the room and looked at a tree.

"I hope you got to see what you wanted."

A subtle movement came from the tree.

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**After Sometime Later**

Naruto and Hinata reached the academy after an hour and a half. Hinata was feeling much better after the rest but she was still hurting on the chest but the pain was less now.

Both of them entered the room and all the commotion inside stopped immediately. Everyone looked at the duo with surprise filled eyes. Girls looking at Naruto started comparing him to Sasuke on the look department. Boys were all eyeing Hinata as she stood out the most among all the girls. Some of them even cursed as they wouldn't be able to get to know her now unless she was in their team.

"Sorry, Iruka-sensei. Stuffs happened so we are both late. Hope we didn't miss our team selection." Naruto asked and Hinata looked slightly embarrassed.

"Nope, I still have to call a few more team's names. Go take a seat. By the way Naruto, you look good in that outfit. You too Hinata." Almost every boys and girls agreed with Iruka's statement.

"Thanks Iruka sensei." Naruto was glad that Iruka liked his outfit.

"T-Thank-you, Iruka-sensei." Hinata politely replied.

With that both of them went at the back to sit, Naruto stopped for a second to look at Sakura but continued his way at the back with Hinata.

"Ok Team seven will be Sasuke uchiha, Sakura haruno and lastly the new transfer student Sai." After the announcing there was a slight verbal fight between Sakura and Ino but Iruka's scolding stopped them. "Now team eight is Kiba inuzuka, Shino aburame and Hinata Hyuuga." Shino was stoic but Kiba smirked a bit and winked at Hinata but quickly faltered when he saw the Naruto's try-anything-and-I-will-kill-you look. For some reason he didn't find his voice to challenge him, he looked a lot different than a week before.

While he was giving Kiba the warning stare, he didn't see that he slightly moved closer to Hinata. The said girl blushed.

In the past week, Hinata understood one thing that she now had a chance to make Naruto like her. There were sometimes when Naruto gave her feral kind of looks as if he _wanted_ her, something she had never seen him do. Especially that one time when she had to remove her old bulky jacket for the water walking training, she saw Naruto looking at her with so much intensity that she got a little uncomfortable. Although few seconds later, he reverted back to his old self.

Even now instead of sitting beside Sakura, he sat beside her. And while most of the girls looking at him he wasn't noticing any of them, because he was too busy to glare at every boy that was trying to look at her.

She giggled to herself and leaned closer to him.

"Now that is all of the team. But Naruto, your case is a bit special. You were requested for an apprenticeship and your mentor will come and get you sometime soon."

There were lots of different faces but two of them stood out the most. Naruto, as he wondered why he was chosen. He was a bit sad that he didn't get to either Sakura or Hinata's team but for now he would just wait and see what would happen. The second person was Sasuke, he really liked the idea of the apprenticeship because he knew that it was a one jonin and one genin thing and he fitted that category more than Naruto, he was more of a sole fighter than a team player. He looked at Sakura and cursed his luck.

Few moments later each of the team's sensei came and took off with them. And suddenly one person came in and without looking at anyone else he looked straight at Naruto. He had short brown hair and black almond-shaped eyes. He was wearing normal jonin attire.

"Naruto Uzumaki, meet me at Ichiraku. We will have our lunch there." With that he's gone.

Now Naruto was confused, _"How the hell did this guy know which place I like,"_ guess he would just have to ask the person himself.

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XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

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**Ichiraku's Place**

Naruto went there after ten minute and saw his new sensei already sitting there. Naruto took the sit beside him.

"Before we go to the questioning phase, maybe we should introduce and tell a bit about ourselves first." He politely said. Seeing Naruto nodded, he continued, "I will go first, my name is Yamato, I was an anbu till now and recently became full time jonin. My hobby is taking care of trees and plants that I have at my home. As for my dream, I want to reach a certain person's level, both on skill and fame."

"Well my name is Naruto Uzumaki; I like training, ramen and my precious people. As for my dream, it is to earn someone's recognition." Naruto kept it short.

"Guess we have something in common. Let's finish our lunch and head to training ground six, there I will tell you about a few things, is that ok with you?"

Naruto was getting impatient but he knew he couldn't push it. He shook his head and started to enjoy his meal.

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After half an hour later

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Training Ground Six,

Both of them reached there almost at the same time. Yamato didn't use shunshin and was trying to see if Naruto could keep up with him, he was glad at the result even though he didn't go full speed.

"Ok, can you answer my questions now, Yamato-sensei?" Naruto was getting a bit frustrated, he did wait too long and the suspense was killing him.

"Well, sure. I know your questions, why did I seem to know about you and why I choose you as my apprentice, right?"

Naruto nodded.

"Firstly, how I know about you? It's simple. I followed you for the last week and saw most of the things you did."

Naruto was shocked. This guy was tailing him for the last week and he didn't sense him at all.

"_Raiju-san, did you sense this guy?"_ Naruto mentally asked his recent tenant.

"**Who do you think you are asking, of course I sensed him and as for why I didn't warn you; remember kid I told you I will not give you everything on silver platter. If he was an enemy you would have been in a great disadvantage or possibly dead. Learn from your blunders and mistakes kid.**" Raiju explained to Naruto, it didn't hurt to motivate the kid from time to time.

Naruto sighed. He knew now that he had to notch up on his training in sensing people.

"So what do think of me after your spying?" Naruto grumbled it out.

Yamato chuckled, "I did spy but it was to see where you stand. As you passed your first genin exam you should know that there is another test after the team selection where the success rate in only thirty three percent." He smirked when he saw Naruto surprised, "So you see you can tell that I tested you during the week, your resolve and skills. As for the skill I was impressed that you beat the previous Rookie of the year although I didn't expected that fight to happen. But lucky me." Seeing Naruto's confused face, he elaborated, "Hyuuga Neji, or in your term the one you brutally defeated." Yamato stopped to see Naruto's expression, and sighed a bit when he saw him smirk.

"_Guess I have to work on his anger department."_ Yamato thought, Sandaime did say he was the best candidate for this.

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Flashback

"_You called for me, Hokage-sama?" Yamato came and kneel down before Sandaime._

"_Yes I did. Relax, we got much to discuss about your new assignment Tenzo. It's about our young blond prankster and I hope you read the file concerning him." Watching Yamato nodding, he continued, "You are to be his mentor from now on. I will instate you as a full time jonin as you are to take him as your apprentice."_

"_With all due respect Hokage-sama, why me?" Yamato inquired._

"_On the document it is cause of your special condition as it will be helpful to control Kyuubi if Naruto goes rampant and also if I present your abilities to the clan heads they might agree to the terms I have in my mind. It will help the advisors and specially Danzo to back off from Naruto." Hiruzen told him while blowing on his pipe._

"_So what is my real job?" Yamato asked. Hiruzen chuckled a bit, _

"_No wonder you are one of the top anbu. Your job as I stated would be to train Naruto, be his actual mentor and report to me only about his tenant's activity or something that should not be fallen into the wrong hand. And one more thing, you know Danzo as much as I do, so try to keep an eye out for anything unusual."_

"_Hai, Hokage-sama."_

"_Good. And from now on your name would be Yamato."_

Flashback Ends

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"Wait, did you see the matches? I didn't see you there." Naruto asked, surely he would have seen this guy as he would be standing out way too much.

"I asked Hiashi-sama the night before if it was ok for me to watch to evaluate your behavior concerning Hinata's fight, he gave me his permission. I didn't know you yourself would get to fight but it was a bonus I guess. Although I am impressed with your abilities but try not to be so brutal on friendly spars." Yamato advised Naruto.

Naruto just shook his head, "So you said I passed the second test, what are we supposed to do now?"

"D rank missions you can do it by yourself but I will try to ask other senseis to see if you can join their group temporarily to those missions. Also we will act as backup to the C rank missions of other genin groups." Yamato explained the details of their upcoming duties.

Naruto smiled, he couldn't wait to start his new life as a genin wondering what kind of new adventures awaited him.

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**Hope you like the chapter. And about the fight between Neji and Naruto, hope you understand why Neji lost so easily. He was not at his full power. I did that to start a few chains of events. And as for the elders I don't know any good evil names to use for now, maybe later I will add. **

**See ya all Later.**


	6. Chapter 6 : The Backup Team

**Till chapter 5, **

**10k+ views, 200+ followers, 100+ likes and 50+ Comments.**

**Love you guys, thanks for the supports.**

**For the rating of the story, I will stick with 'M' as most of the readers are suggesting.**

**And for improving the grammar, I decided I will take some time to update the chapters, I will reread few times to correct any mistakes I made after I write it down. Meaning I might not be able to update few chapters at once in a week like before. **

**Enjoy**

_**Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto.**_

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**Naruto's PoV**

Being a Ninja means you have to fight swiftly against all the odds to save the helpless against tyrants, have to eliminate bandits that terrorize defenseless villages, rescue princess from the clutches of evil, defend nation against oppressors. That is what a ninja _supposed_ to do, risk your life for the good of people.

What the _fuck_ is this shit?

Painting fences, taking care of babies, doing groceries? And what about catching that damn cat Tora, which should be a high level mission. I almost killed the cat if it wasn't for Yamato-sensei. After the last mission we came to an agreement. For the boring useless shits like this, if I am doing them solo, I will sent my shadow clones to do it. Got better things to do than these _chores_. I mean who the fuck uses ninja to paint their house and watch their dogs, DOGS?! Well at least when I am doing these _missions_ with other teams it feels better. Glad to see that I am not the only one suffering.

Yamato-sensei called our team *The Backup Team*. Sounds cool if you ask me. We are the backup for other teams, and we also join any team that is taking C rank mission for the first or second time. Sweet! Well so far I was only able to help with one group with their C rank mission. It was a quick delivery of some important document, their sensei asked for us for some extra hand as they had to deliver the document fast. Got my first C rank mission done fast, swiftly and without trouble. Awesome, right! But didn't like the team.

Why? Cause the stuck-up white-eyed prick was there. The team is called Team Nine. Don't like the Hyuuga but I must say that team knows how to pack a punch but except the girl everyone else is insane. The sensei, oh my god their sensei is the most weird crazy guy I have even seen. His name is Gai, has thick eyebrow I mean really thick, wears a bright green jumpsuit and has a bowl haircut. And every time he does this weird *nice guy* pose, I think I can see the sun reflect on his teeth. I call him 'Bushy Brow Sensei'. And his clone 'Bushy brow' who is a bit smaller but looks exactly like Gai, acts like him too. Name is Lee. And both of them do this weird hugging thingy where this genjutsu comes in that I swear is stronger than my Harem jutsu. Just let these two do their genjutsu on the battlefield and I am sure most of the enemy will be out cold. And both of them keep on spouting 'flames of youth' in every-freaking-line! What the fuck is 'flames of youth'? But from what I heard Lee can't use ninjutsu or genjutsu but is really good at taijutsu, I sparred with him a bit, only taijutsu, and I lost badly. Next match I used my practice swords and it was a draw, he almost broke my swords. Damn, that was a tough match.

The girl named Tenten is composed and good with weapons. We became friends fast when she saw me using kenjutsu against Lee. We sparred a bit using swords, I was the winner but she sure didn't make it easy for me, she did say sword is still new to her, she is better with range weapons and bojutsu for now. Later we decided we will spar whenever we can using _only_ weapons, she can use any while I will stick with my swords. And the last is the pompous fate-is-my-bitch teme, the one and only Neji. On our joint team time, he didn't say anything but he sure glared at me as if he was saying fate was taking a nap that day so you got lucky. But I must say I _was_ lucky, if he was in his usual level I might not have won that easily. Cause according to Gai-sensei Neji is better than Lee in taijutsu and also when we were working together I saw he is fast and quick-witted and from the looks of things he is training himself harder for a rematch. Guess I also have to notch-up my training as well.

But working with the new genin teams is better than the old ones in my opinion. Only three genin team is able to pass the second test this year and team ten is one of them. Working with them, how to say, is 'troublesome'. The lazy ass Shikamaru, the chubby Chouji, and the 'troublesome' Ino, the ino-shika-chouji combo; that's what my sensei told me. Their fathers were a legendary combo, so they also wanted to try this out with their children I guess. But most of the times doing D rank missions, Shikamaru tries to sleep while Ino yells at him. It ends with me and Chouji doing most of the work. But sometimes I caught Ino giving me this weird look like she is sizing me up, 'troublesome'. As for their sensei, that guy's name is Asuma; son of the Sandaime. Still pissed at the old man for what happened before, so didn't talk with this guy much. But from what I heard he was a member of the Twelve Guardian Ninja, don't know much about it but I heard it is somewhat important. Guess I will look into it later, but one thing l learned about the guy is that he is lazy.

Did I say the team ten's sensei was lazy? Well then it will make Team seven's sensei king of lazy. I mean that guy came after three hours of the appointed time, three-fucking-long-hours. Hatake Kakashi, supposed to be an elite jonin, elite jonin my ass! All he does is to read that perverted book and nothing else. But he got really pissed when he found that he lost the book; shouldn't have done that but don't regret it. The book is kinda good; maybe I can use it for later, for good purpose of course. As for the members, they have the mighty Sasuke. Wanted to fight with him and by the looks of things he wanted too also but guess we will put it for later. He still acts like a lone-wolf. Doesn't communicate much but I can tell he is strong and getting stronger as well. Don't know where his mind is most of the time but as long as he doesn't get on my way or my head I am cool with him which their other member is incapable of doing it seems. I mean what the fuck is that guy's problem. This kid, Sai, is one freaky pale looking kid who wears a fake smile, I mean even a child can see that his smile is fake. And whenever he opens his mouth I am just an inch away from shoving my blade up to his ass. He called me dickless, DICKLESS! I warned him and Kakashi-sensei that next time he calls me that I will cut his dick myself and almost did too. After that he calls me by other names, guess he was born to piss off people but one thing I noticed when we were working together that he looks at me like he is observing me. Creepy!

As for the last member, Sakura. Funny how I sometimes forget to add chan, everyone in my class knew I had a crush on her, I still do; maybe. In the academy, she used to wear bright colored cloths, that and with her hair she drew attention to herself without knowing. She was smart and elegant well maybe not so elegant if Sasuke comes into the picture, but that's why I liked her, so much devotion to one person, I wondered how it would feel to be on the receiving end of that. So I chased after her even when she was always rude to me. But after that fateful night, it changed. I mean if I see Sakura I still ask her out but it is more like a routine and as usual she rejects me but not so harshly now, don't know why, but the funny part is that I don't feel hurt now. I just shrug it off like it is a common thing. Because one thing I learned that Sakura won't recognize or like me as long as I am myself.

Now let's get this straight, I want people to recognize me sure but I don't want to change myself or degrade myself for that, I will be who I am and who I was. Got a problem with that? Shove it up your ass.

As for the last team, Team eight. Now this team I like except for the mutt. Kiba the ass, he is brash and wants to be an alpha, what is an alpha anyway? He and Akamaru can pack a punch, I will admit that. But their strong point is tracking down people. The only problem I have with him is that for some reason he wants to fight me in a real match, if it was a normal spar it would have been ok but for some reason I don't think it is like that, it felt more like he wants to prove something. Oh well! If we fight later I would show him who the boss is. The next guy is the quiet Shino, well he was so quiet that I thought he was mute. He talked when he heard me asking Hinata that. Boy he was pissed. But he is cool, he uses bugs to fight and track down people as well. Most people might get frightened by that but hey, I am not like most people. So when I told him that I have no problem with him or his bugs we became friends, I think. It is hard to understand people when all they do is nod and say only few words.

At last their sensei who, how to put it, is a scary beautiful woman, Kurenai is her name. But she is better than most senseis that I met during my joint missions from what I can tell. She is not lazy or crazy or put her attention to anywhere else except the team when we are doing missions. She also gives good and constructive advices, now don't get me wrong Guy sensei also did but when he talks with his usual overly spirited mood, it's kind of hard to concentrate. And also I scored some good points with Kurenai-sensei when I told her about her being better than the rest of the senseis.

Well lastly there is Hinata-chan, man it feels best when I am working with her. She listens to whatever I say even during missions and always stays close to me. But the problem is recently she is getting some _unwanted _attention. With her new clothing, new demeanor and her less shyness but more kind behavior, well she was always kind to begin with but being less shy now she started to interact with people more and so they started to notice her kindness. Add that with being the Hyuuga heiress, she is becoming as popular as Sasuke, the last Uchiha. But the good part is Kurenai-sensei and Shino is keeping an eye out for the _annoying_ peoples. And it doesn't help when sometimes she makes faces that make me want to hug her and don't wanna let go but don't think she will like that, guess will have to wait for chances to show up so I can hug her as an act of accident; the book I stole from the Cyclops-sensei gave lots of useful tips, decent tips. Hmm, maybe I should see if the book has other parts as well. We also decided to tell Kurenai-sensei about improvising the gentle fist. She decided to help also and from what I can tell she treats Hinata-chan as if she is her big sister. We, well mostly I cause Hinata-chan was too reluctant to say, told Kurenai-sensei about the fight between her and Neji. She was pissed when she heard what Neji did, she even told that she will ask her friend, what was her name again Anzo .. Anki …. something like that, to help Hinata-chan with her taijutsu.

Me and Hinata-chan also do training together whenever we have free time, from what I heard her father agreed that she can continue her training with me. Guess we just have to utilize it fully. I am helping her with her flexibility and stamina while she is giving me some tips about tracking and chakra control. I was able to boost her confidence by a little bit when I told her I defeated Neji and it was thanks to her, cause whether Neji admit it or not, Hinata-chan was more than he could handle. I am also doing a side research to help Hinata-chan out in her taijutsu. So far didn't find anything solid that might help her.

Well as for my training with Yamato-sensei, he bought me two real swords and chakra can be flowed through them cause of the special metal but not by huge amount, cheap-shit if you ask me but hey beggars can't be choosers. He told me not to use the real swords while sparring with other genin except special occasions. He also helped me to learn my new combination jutsu. Well my training mostly includes heavy physical and kenjutsu training.

I also took some tips from other senseis when I worked with them before, well only two sensei actually helped. Kakashi-sensei and Asuma-sensei was all about teamwork and how to be lazy, didn't get any lessons from them. If I ask they just give advises on how to work well with a team. Gai-sensei and Kurenai-sensei was amazing. Kurenai-sensei gave me a few tips on how to dispel genjutsu and gave me a few books to study about genjutsu. Gai-sensei was more practical, he gave me some physical training advises and some training body weight. He showed me how to utilize them in training as well. Yamato-sensei told me I can wear the weights as long as I am doing normal D rank missions but if I am going outside of Konoha walls, I have to take them out. I am also doing the advance element training with Yamato-sensei's help. He said he is going to teach me a few new lightning moves after I complete the advance elemental training. In his opinion, the elemental training will help me on my bloodline.

As for my good tenant, I enjoy talking with him. Raiju-san told me a bit more about the storm release and about one of the low level jutsu where I have to use all three elements. According to Raiju-san, even a low level storm release jutsu where all the three elements are used can be deadly. Cool! But I have to master lightning element a bit more and wait for my water element chakra to mature a bit, whatever that means. But this technique is about controlling electrocuted cloud; don't know exactly what it does but one thing for sure. It will be a kickass technique.

Guess I should go back home and pack my stuffs, I mean I do have one C rank mission tomorrow with an old team. What was it again, team eleven? Team fourteen? Baah! I will remember it later, maybe.

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**Two Weeks Later**

Outskirts of a Rural Village

"Almost had it, damn!" Naruto sighed while he slouched down on the soft grass.

The next stage of the elemental training was quite hard to complete. Naruto had to charge up his normal kunai and to throw it at a tree. The task here was that the kunai had to go through the tree with high speed. Lightning element was well known for it's speed and sharpness, well it was not as sharp as wind element but it covered up with the speed attribute. So here he had to apply both of those two attribute in one go. He made one shadow clone who was timing his throws. So far he could only make the kunai hit really deep into the tree with slightly faster speed than normal but it had to be two times faster than normal kunai-throw.

"Man, this is tiring." Naruto exclaimed tiredly. He had been doing this training non-stop since yesterday.

"If you want to control your bloodline, you have to master your lightning element as much as you can, you know that, right?" Yamato said while looking at the field, he had been watching Naruto train since yesterday and he was surprised by the progress. To him Naruto was natural at lightning element, be it hardcore training or learning jutsus.

Their joint mission was to deliver a valuable package to this village and increase the defense as there were chances of bandits attacking. So far the bandit did attack the village once but nothing they could not handle. The other team was resting now because one of the members got injured so they were staying here for a while and keeping a lookout till the other team was good enough to go. Meanwhile training Naruto didn't seem such a bad idea, kid got talent for certain ninjutsus and kenjutsu.

"Wow, sensei you sure know your stuffs. Where did you learn about my bloodline?" Naruto inquired, Raiju said something similar before.

Yamato thought for a while. He knew that he would be teaching Naruto for some time and by the looks of it he was kind of enjoying the blond prankster's company.

"I know a bit about bloodline like yours, the advance elemental bloodline." Yamato said while he moved to a bit more open area while doing some hand signs. Not much people knew of his ability but telling his student didn't sound like a bad idea.

"Cause my ability is almost the same type." With that he finished doing the hand signs and slammed his hand to the ground.

A wooden wall came out. Naruto's jaw dropped when he saw the wooden wall. A wood element user, wait did it mean?

"Wow a wood element. Does that mean you are related to Senju or Shodaime?" Naruto asked while he walked towards the wall and started inspecting the wood, it was sturdy.

"In a way, yes. But I don't want to go deep into that for now if you don't mind." Seeing Naruto nodded, Yamato smiled. He continued, "Do you remember what I told you about chakra and element?"

"Ya, like how we can transform and define our chakra into nature chakra." Naruto answered while he sat down.

"Good, for using elemental jutsus you have to learn nature and shape transformation. Let's concentrate nature transformation for now, is it ok?" Naruto shook his head. Yamato started explaining again, "For nature transformation you have two options, to convert your chakra to raw element or use your chakra to control the element." Yamato said after he dispelled the wooden wall.

"Convert or control." Naruto whispered. "The first option is for those that do not have good control over their element or can't reach higher level of nature manipulation, while they can use their primary or secondary elements but this method drains chakra a lot while the second one is for those that had good control over their elemental affinity and this option also requires less chakra." Yamato continued explaining, "People prefer first option cause it is easier, faster and takes lesser training however it is quite chakra consuming. The second one is for those that truly want to master their element. You have to work and train hard to advance your primary element's control. What average Shinobis don't know is that the second way of using element can beat the first one as you will have more control over your element."

"That's why you are making me do the advance element control." Naruto was getting interested now.

"Yes, also for the bloodlines like us we have to control the first element and convert the second one." Naruto got surprised of what Yamato said. "Umm, sensei; than what about bloodlines that uses three elements?" Naruto asked a bit hesitantly.

"Bloodlines that can use three elements? I don't know if there is any bloodline like that. Never heard of those but in theory it doesn't sound impossible but quite a hard feat to achieve if you ask me. It might be that one has to fully master the first element while being quite good with the other two to use something like that. Otherwise you got to spend huge amount of chakra to convert two elements at once."

"Fully master? Do you know anyone who actually fully mastered their element?" Naruto asked while he started to process what Yamato told him.

"Well the only ones I know of are Nidaime Hokage for water, Sandaime Raikage for lightning. Some even say the current Raikage is close to fully master his element." Yamato was having fun, unlike in anbu where things were a bit stiff, spending time with Naruto felt kind of fresh and free, he always wanted to know about new things. His curiosity had no limit it seems.

"You mean to tell me the only element masters you know are Kages?" Naruto's asked with wide eyes. Yamato just chuckled.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu." Naruto used the jutsu with a new determination voice, no time to slack around.

Yamato smiled at Naruto, whatever doubts he had about him was all gone on this mission. He was brash and hothead alright but he was also kind and mature when he wanted to be.

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Flashback

"_Naruto, you ok?" Yamato asked at the tired boy. They just fought a bunch of bandits, there were not much of a problem but his main concern was that Naruto took lives for the first time, his first kills. This was one of the hardest times for a Shinobi, especially the young ones. Even though Naruto was a ninja, age-wise he was still a kid. _

"_Yah, I am doing fine sensei, just tired." Naruto replied. Fighting of the bandits and killing for first time took its toll on him._

"_Do you want to talk about it? Your first kill?"_

_Naruto looked at his sensei when he heard this. In a part of his mind, he was still remorseful of what he did, even though it was a small part. He knew why he had to do it and he also knew what would happen if he hesitated._

"_I don't know sensei. What I know that if I didn't kill them, they would've killed all those innocent people and those bandits won't ever listen to reasoning. In a way by killing them I saved the innocent but the fact remains that I took lives." Naruto answered dejectedly._

_Yamato smiled at him, Naruto answered his own problems without him knowing. "Typical of you Naruto." Yamato thought to himself._

"_Naruto, can you look at those people." He pointed at some villagers._

_When Naruto looked at them, he saw that the said villagers were being embraced by their family. The tears of happiness were clear on their eyes._

"_Those are the people that you saved Naruto. As you said by killing some bad guys you saved some good innocent people. It is what most Shinobi do, but you know what makes you different? Because you feel sad for the lives you took which makes you an honorable Shinob,i but remember the smiles of the people you saved, that will make you an accomplished one."_

_Naruto smiled at the happy family. _

"_Come on, when we return back to Konoha, ramen will be on me." Yamato said._

"_Really?!" Naruto shouted, "Only ten." Yamato replied in a stern voice, he knew his ramen obsession; better play safely._

_Naruto laughed, ten free ramen didn't sound bad._

Flashback Ends

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Yamato looked and saw Naruto was doing his training with ten of his shadow clones. Naruto was one stamina freak but the best thing was he sure knew how to utilize that.

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**Few Days Later**

At night,

Naruto slumped down on his bed. These last few days training was tiring but gave good results. He finished his elemental training, he was able to pierce a tree with a high speed lightning-charged kunai.

What he learned from Yamato that if he wanted to use storm release with two element he had to be real good with lightning element and had to have a bit control over water. But if he wanted to use all three elements, he had to be close to master lightning manipulation while having more control over water as well as wind. Otherwise he would have to spend shitload of chakra to use the jutsus.

"So, how am I doing Raiju-san?" Naruto asked his tenant, every night after training he spends a little time with the big guy for his opinion.

"**Good, kid. You have advanced faster than I expected. And let me guess, you want to learn that jutsu I told you about**." Seeing Naruto nod his head sheepishly, Raiju sighed.

"**Using three elements all together is still too early for you but seeing your progress, I will give you a test of my own, pass it and I will tell you about another storm release jutsu, not the one you are thinking but how to put it in your term….as much badass as that one**." Raiju smirked.

Naruto laughed, Raiju sure knew how to lure him into doing things his way. But he had to admit that the jutsus Raiju talked about were pretty epic. Guess he just had to wait.

Suddenly Yamato came in with a grim look on his face.

"Naruto, pack your things fast and take a quick rest." Yamato said with a serious voice.

"What happened, Yamato-sensei?" Naruto asked, it's quite rare to see his sensei like this.

"I just got a report that team seven's first C rank mission has taken a difficult turn with missing nins involving now. It might be a B or A rank mission, but for some reason they are continuing. We are to go and act as their reinforcement as we are closer to them." Yamato was replying while he himself was packing his things. "So take a quick rest. We move out after few hours."

"Why the hell are they doing an A rank mission…" Naruto shouted. Yamato smiled seeing the maturity of Naruto, "Without us?" Then he frowned, guess he still had long way to go.

"Just pack your things and rest for a while. We are no good if we reach there without our full power." He just sighed.

"What were you thinking Kakashi-senpai? Trying to do an A rank mission with bunch of genin?"

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**Few Hours Later**

Someplace else

"What was I thinking? Trying to do an A rank mission with bunch of genin?" Kakashi scowled to himself. In front him was Zabuza one of the mist swordsmen. This guy was an A rank missing nin. He told his team to protect the client while he would take care of him. The fight was hard even with his sharingan. Guess he had to finish this fast or he wouldn't have enough chakra to continue. He could win the fight, what was the worst thing that can happen?

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Few Moments Later

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Getting caught by Zabuza's water prison, that's the worst thing that could happen. "Fuck" Kakashi thought to himself but when he saw his students standing their ground even though he ordered them to retreat, he knew if he didn't find a way out soon, things were going to go very bad. Sasuke was not a team player but when things became tough he was willing to work together but Sai was making things hard.

Kakashi never wanted the pale kid, he wanted Naruto. When he heard that he was already taken as an apprentice, he was saddened. He asked if he could still take Naruto but Sandaime told him that was not an option. He knew the kid from early age for his devious pranking skills. Naruto had a power that could pull everyone to him and helped them get stronger along with him. He wanted Naruto to be the heart of his team but this new kid Sai was only making the team more disarranged. He knew that the kid was not normal, the way he moved and acted during mission showed that he had anbu training. He asked Hokage about this but he said that the council wanted the kid to be put on Sasuke's team for his protection.

"_Protection my ass! He will be the reason Sasuke will have a shorter life."_ Kakashi thought. And Sakura, seeing she was in the team with two hot boys, she was acting more like a fangirl than a ninja. She needed a rude wake up call.

"Mizu-Bunshin," Zabuza said. He made three clones and by the looks of it, he was going to finish this fast.

"Ok, maybe not that kind of rude wake up call." Kakashi thought. He was now fully hoping for miracle.

Before the clones could charge one of them got impaled by a kunai that came out of nowhere but with really high speed. Another almost hit real Zabuza in the head but he ducked to dodge it at the last moment.

Two figures drop right in front of team seven.

'The Backup Team' has arrived.

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**Hope you guys enjoyed this. **

**Till next time.**


	7. Chapter 7 : Wave Arc I

**Thank you every one of rating and reviewing the story**

**Ryujin96 ****: thank you for liking it, I will try to make the rest of the chapters as good or hopefully better than the last one.**

**Ashynlem: ****For your first part wait few chapters and you will see, and for romance it is only naruhina. Also for you other questions, all I can say is that wait and see :P**

**Here is the next chapter of the Story**

**Enjoy**

_**Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto.**_

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"_Yamato-sensei, there is something wrong here." Naruto asked while he slowed down a bit._

"_What's wrong, Naruto?" Yamato slowed down as well, with their current speed they would be able to catch up with Team seven anytime soon._

"_Something doesn't feel right, I don't know how to explain but the nature here started to feel weird." Years of training with Anbu paid off for Yamato, he was able to hide his surprised state fast. He looked around and saw the air was moister than normal. _

_Inside Naruto's mind Raiju quirked an eyebrow, then he smirked._

"_Naruto, where do you feel the most disturbance in the nature?" Yamato questioned his apprentice, not sure how he was able to sense it faster than him._

"_From there." Naruto pointed to the direction._

"_Let's go." Yamato told Naruto hoping that it was not what his instincts were telling him._

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_Ten Minutes Later_

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"_Seems like a fake mist." Naruto said to no one when he saw a bit of mist here and there. _

"_This kid is just full of wonders, how did he figure it out that the mist is not natural? We are not even close to the source yet." Yamato thought to himself._

"_Naruto, I think Team seven will need our help sooner than we thought. We have the element of surprise here, I want you to use it to come with something." Yamato ordered Naruto, because he knew when it came to do something surprising and unique; Naruto pulls it off more swiftly than an anbu._

_Naruto nodded and immediately he made three shadow clones and gave them three kunai._

"_Alright guys, let's try our original 'Uzumaki style: piercing phantom arrow' technique." The clones gave a wild smirk and ran off to different directions._

_Naruto looked back at Yamato and seeing his face he just told him to wait and see._

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**Present Time**

Two figures drop right in front of team seven.

'The Backup Team' has arrived.

"Don't worry my fellow comrades as your savior the 'The Backup Team' has arrived." Naruto shouted while pointing his index finger and his imaginary pointy nose upwards.

Everyone sweatdropped. The killing mode was gone in less than a second.

"Naruto, get serious. This is Zabuza, a high A class missing nin." Yamato grunted, it was embarrassing every time Naruto did that pose and no matter what he said he didn't stop. "Team seven guard your client, Naruto back me up." Yamato ordered and took his fighting stance.

Naruto moved a bit closer to Yamato, "sensei, outsider, killed third clone, from behind." He whispered.

Yamato became alerted. It's true, Naruto sent out three clones with kunai but only two was thrown. Someone was out there and the fact that the said person was able to caught Naruto's clone off guard meant business. Yamato signaled Naruto and then rushed towards Zabuza.

"_Distract Zabuza and keep an eye out for the partner."_

After getting the message Naruto sighed. Even though he wanted to help his sensei, he couldn't get directly involved now that there was another hidden person out there.

With Zabuza

Things were tough with 'Sharingan no Kakashi' but after he was able to pull him to fight on top of the water, things went just like it was supposed to. True that Kakashi can copy jutsus but he had to use more chakra than normal to power up the jutsu, otherwise it wouldn't be effective against Zabuza. And because of the implanted sharingan, his chakra ran out faster making him exhausted. He got him in his water prison and almost completed his objective but then the reinforcement came. Worst part there were more people out in the woods, because the two kunai was thrown at him from different directions.

He knew he couldn't keep on fighting less than against two jonins. He had to cut down the number to half. With that he brought his weapon up but before he could take the swing to cut Kakashi in half who was still trapped inside his water prison, the man that was rushing towards him suddenly ducked and another electric kunai came at him. But to his surprise, instead of hitting him it hit the water prison and gave him a light electric shock but it was enough to disrupt the prison. Without wasting any time Zabuza swung his sword down hoping he was fast enough to kill Kakashi before he escaped. He cut down something but to his frustration it was a log. And immediately he dodged to avoid an earth spike but the second unnoticed earth spike impaled his left shoulder, he rotated his body to the side before it could tear his shoulder apart.

Kakashi was out and the new jonin was fresh. Zabuza was no fool to realize that his defeat was inevitable.

He jumped back, landing on the water he started swinging his sword in the air and on the last swing he rotated his whole body while dipping one third of his sword into the water.

"Secret sword art: Tidal wave." And then he took the last swing towards the Konoha ninjas.

A big wide wave came at them. It was as if the swing of the sword created that.

"Water Release: Tearing Torrent." Yamato shouted landing in front of the genins.

"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique." Kakashi yelled the moment he went beside Yamato.

The water dragon was made with less water as Kakashi was running low on chakra but with Yamato's jutsu the water beast had enough power to tear down the oncoming gigantic wave.

But when the water calmed down, Zabuza was gone.

"Shouldn't we go after him?" Sai suggested.

"No. Kakashi-sempai is tired and our job is to protect you guys." Pointing to Kakashi who is breathing hard then Yamato turned to Tazuna and asked, "How far is your house?"

"Not far, maybe it would take an hour or so to reach there."

"Make it fifteen minutes. Naruto, take the old man; I will carry Kakashi-sempai. Team seven we are moving out."

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**Tazuna's House**

After reaching Tazuna's house they were greeted by his daughter, Tsunami who was a beautiful woman at her late twenties with long black hair and black eyes.

"Father, you are back." She said in obvious relief.

"Yes, thanks to these ninja." Tazuna replied with as much joy as her daughter.

"Is there any place we can rest?" Yamato asked politely, as much as he would like to see the reunion of the family he was still carrying an unconscious Kakashi.

Tsunami blushed and led them inside.

After few hours of relaxation all the genin met outside of the house as instructed.

"Team seven, as you know Kakashi-san collapsed cause of chakra-exhaustion and it might take a while before he reached his fighting condition. So till he is fully recovered I will be in charge." Yamato explained in a serious tone, he knew this team would be hard to handle so he had to take precautions.

"And as you saw, Zabuza escaped but he was hurt badly. So if I have to take a guess I would say for few days we won't be facing any problems from him, hopefully. For now I will be training you before Zabuza comes back and you can be sure that he will bring reinforcement."

All of them were taken back when they heard that.

"Are you sure, sensei?" Sakura asked nervously. Zabuza alone almost took out their team, if he had reinforcements now, the battle might be not to their favor anymore.

"Zabuza has two options now. Either he will drop the mission as he can't take two jonins alone or he would ask for some backup to make sure he gets enough chance to complete his task." Yamato clarified the facts. They had to be ready for anything. This wasn't a simple C rank mission anymore. This was an A rank mission which had to be done with few chunin squads.

"Alright, let's leave the scary stuffs alone." Yamato tried to lighten up the mood. "Kakashi-san asked me to teach you three about tree climbing exercise. Follow me." But Before leaving, he made a shadow clone. "Naruto you keep on practicing that jutsu of yours. I will come to you after I am done with them." With that he led team seven into different area.

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**At Zabuza's Hideout**

"Zabuza-sama, you should rest. Your shoulder is hurt pretty badly."

"You think, Haku?" Zabuza deadpanned looking at the said person.

Haku, a fourteen year old girl with shoulder length black hair and brown eyes, just smiled back sweetly and jabbed Zabuza with an ice senbon. Zabuza flinched at the contact of the frozen needle.

"If you weren't laid back, you could have finish the job faster _and_ let me remind you Zabuza-sama that I was against this from the very beginning. Also if I hadn't interfered with the blond you might have been caught." Haku said with a sugary tone which made Zabuza back down and sweat furiously.

"_Damn this girl is becoming feisty. And she is right, the blond genin was good. He was able to take me by surprise two times and if I wasn't lucky I wouldn't have made it out."_ Zabuza thought to himself.

"Look, the demon got his ass whipped. " Gato announced his presence when he entered the place with his bodyguards.

"_Fat pig/Waste of space."_ Haku/Zabuza thought but kept it to themselves.

Haku gave Gato a chilling cold glare, "Seriously? Please go check 'Copycat Kakashi' on the bingo book and Zabuza-sama here beat him and almost got the job done if it wasn't for the reinforcement. Try to say something useful once in a while." Haku sighed, "Zabuza-sama I will go out and check for some herbs for your wound." With that she left.

"Something happened?" Gato tried to regain his composure but it's kind of hard when one almost pissed himself.

Zabuza looked at the frozen pieces of an orange book and wept mentally. When moving him after the battle, she found the book which he was hiding from her for few months and things went downhill from there.

"Never mind that, but as you heard things got difficult. And I can't handle them alone."

"So you need more money? Is that it?" Gato snorted.

Zabuza made Are-you-stupid face and just shook his head. He always wondered how idiots like him could make tons of cash.

"What am I supposed to do with the money? Throw at them? I need backup you useless fart. Try to get someone who can at least hold off an anbu for some time till I can finish the bridge builder. Your thugs won't be helpful that's for sure." Zabuza spat out. He lost the fight, he lost his book and Haku was pissed at him. He really needed to cleave some heads.

Gato just grunted and went out of the place.

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**With Yamato**

Yamato told team seven about tree walking. He wasn't surprised when Sai finished first but he didn't expected Sakura to finish fast as well. But if he were to take a guess it was that her chakra reserve was really low. So he just told them to keep doing it until Sasuke managed as well.

Kakashi and he believed that Sai might be a plant from Danzo to keep close tabs on Sasuke and Naruto as well, because he caught Sai sending his ink mouse toward Naruto when they separated. That solidified Hokage' fear as well as their doubt. He destroyed the mouse and told Sai if that was to happen again he would be charged for spying on fellow comrades. Hopefully that will stop him from doing further troubles, at least for now.

"Umm, sensei; would you be teaching us any jutsu?" Sakura asked while panting. Doing tree walking few times really took its toll on her chakra.

"Why?" Yamato quirked an eyebrow hearing that, he saw the other two also was listening carefully.

"I mean you are teaching Naruto a jutsu, shouldn't you teach us as well? And that baka is not even practicing this exercise. And how will this even help?" Sakura said, crossing her arms.

Sakura, now what he heard from Kakashi that she had potential but she acted more of a girl than a kunoichi, with that kind of mentality in this world she wouldn't last much unless she tried to change.

Yamato just sighed, not every jonin was as laid back as Kakashi and its high time she understood that.

"You are under Kakashi-san's command, not mine. Naruto is my student so I can train him the way I see fit. About this exercise, he knows higher level of chakra exercise than this. And unlike you those two aren't complaining and doing their work, aren't they? As for this exercise, it will help you control your chakra better. Also I may not be as strict as some jonin but be polite when you are talking with your superiors." Yamato pointed out heatedly.

Sakura was beyond shocked, usually Kakashi would just shrug things off or come with poor excuses when he didn't want to answer. So even when she yelled at him or rudely ask him something, he didn't mind. But this sensei was different.

"Sorry, sensei." She just muttered and went to rest.

Sasuke just shook his head, if he knew more about the apprenticeship he would have requested the Hokage to grant him one as well. As far he knew only Chunin or elite genin could get it, not some freshly graduated genin. And by the looks of it, he wouldn't mind having this jonin as his sensei either. Kakashi was good and after the fight with Zabuza, he knew Kakashi could help him with his sharingan once he awakened it. But damn Kakashi and his laziness, from what he heard Naruto was doing as much missions as them and maybe more but still he was getting tougher training.

He just sighed and look at the tree that he was supposed to climb. Maybe he could ask the dobe for a match but right now he was not so sure if he could beat him unless he had his sharingan. With new determination he started practicing again.

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**With Naruto**

Naruto was watching his clones trying to master his new taijutsu technique. He knows he was getting better at kenjutsu but after hearing some points from Yamato he wanted to have some moves on taijutsu as well. His kenjutsu style was deadly and most of the techniques were hit to kill and that was why he couldn't use that against an unarmed comrade unless he was really pissed. Right now one clone was acting as an enemy while the others were trying to time it down to do the combo. He was observing them from a tree. A high place was always the best place for observation.

"So what will call this move of yours?" Asked the Yamato-clone, being a shadow clone later he could transfer the memories of the training regime.

"Uzumaki style: Mirage takedown. But I can only use it against one guy and it is kind of one time thingy, can't really use it twice in a same match. So i am hoping it packs enough power to knock the opponent down in one go." Naruto replied.

"Hmm, by the looks of it if the original you do the main hit maybe you can. By the way I didn't hear anything about your other technique." Yamato inquired.

"You mean Uzumaki style: Piercing phantom arrow. It's simple really, I send few shadow clones to different sides of the battlefield and at the right moment they will throw lightning charged kunai at the opponent syncing with each other after which they will dispel themselves immediately. If the opponents don't see me using shadow clones or sending them, then it will catch them by surprise confusing them and putting them on edge thinking there are other people in the area. Crafty work, don't you think so?" Naruto smiled while giving a victory sign.

Yamato laughed, "_Crafty little fox indeed_." He thought to himself.

"Well I agree with you, if you were able to throw that last kunai at the right time maybe we would be able to get Zabuza lot faster." Yamato pointed out. "So what about the one where you use your bloodline and kenjutsu together?"

"Ahh that one, well it works great but it has a major side effect which is rather bad, I am trying to find a way to go around it." Naruto sighed.

After hearing the sound of clone dispelling Naruto looked at the fighting place.

"Guess first phase of the move is done, I will need your help on the second phase sensei." Naruto said while jumping down from the tree.

"Sure, but it is getting late today. Let's head out and you can start early from tomorrow morning." Yamato suggested.

Naruto nodded and dispelled the remaining clones.

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**At Night**

Everyone was tired after the long day, they were now having their dinner on Tazuna's place.

Suddenly a boy not older than ten years came down from upstairs and looked at them with distrust and annoyance.

"Who are they?" The said boy asked.

"They are the ninja we were talking about, Inari." Tazuna smiled at him.

"They should just leave, they are only going to die anyway." The boy snorted and took his food upstairs.

"He is one charming sunshine, isn't he?" Naruto said blankly.

"Please forgive his behavior, he went through a lot." Tsunami implored.

Naruto just shook his head and went to eating, he knew he had a long day tomorrow.

He also noticed that all members of team seven was taking a glimpse of him every now and then.

He glanced at Yamato making what-the-fuck-is-going-on-NOW look. Yamato just sighed and gave him I-will-tell-about-it-tomorrow face.

Naruto just sighed to himself.

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**At Morning**

"So Naruto let's take it easy, shall we? Today Kakashi-sempai will supervise his own team's training so I am not needed there. OK, so what do you need my help for?" Yamato said.

"Well that's great then. First sensei, I need one of your wood clone to be the target of my technique 'Mirage takedown', your wood clone is harder and sturdier than shadow clone and it will help me a lot and also if my opponent doesn't gets knockdown by that I want to see what kind of other openings it will give me." Naruto summarized.

"Wow, you got it all sorted out. Nice one, Naruto. Anything else you have in your mind?" Now _this _was why Yamato liked teaching Naruto, _"You only have to give the kid a seed and he himself would try to grow the tree all by himself and would ask for advice only when needed."_

Naruto scratched his head with embarrassment after hearing the praise.

"Thanks sensei. But right now I just want to master this first, then maybe we can move onto the new lightning jutsu you told about." Naruto answered.

"Sure, let's get started then."

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After Few hours later

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Naruto was resting but from afar it would seem he was fast asleep. Yamato went to check on Kakashi and he said he would bring lunch for them. Naruto knew there was a risk of getting attacked so he created few shadow clones and henged them to hide them from normal eyes.

"Yo Raiju-san, I found something interesting when I was checking the books "Five Kages" and "Bloodlines" last night. Naruto said to his favorite tenant.

"**So what is it boy, from the looks of it you seem pretty excited**." Raiju asked the blond.

"Well, what I learned first was that there is a similar bloodline also known as Storm release but like you said it was written there that the user only combines two elements, lightning and water only unlike mine. And also I was looking for an elemental bloodline that uses three elements for a long time and I finally found it. "Dust Release." Only current Tsuchikage seems to know how to use that. Also guess what? From what I learned Dust release is known as advanced nature kekkei tōta, an advanced version of kekkei genkai. So does that mean mine is also like that? I do use three elements to use my bloodline and it is not like the normal Storm release either." Naruto asked while barely containing his excitement.

Raiju chuckled lightly.

"**Correction Naruto, you can't use all the three elements of your bloodline **_**yet.**_" He laughed when he saw Naruto pouted. "**But you are right, in human terms maybe your bloodline is an advanced nature kekkei tōta. But don't tell anyone yet, wait till you fully master it**."

"But can I change the name of my bloodline into a cool one when I can use all the three elements? I don't want people thinking it is the same as the other Storm release because mine is special, right?" Naruto said with a grin.

"**Hmm, guess you are right on that also but I want you to wait and think it out carefully, ok?**" Raiju pointed out carefully.

Naruto wanted to say something but Raiju stopped him.

"You have a visitor Naruto."

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Outside World

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When Haku saw Naruto, she was debating whether to not kill him or no, she approached him but before she could do anything.

"You shouldn't try to sneak up on a ninja, it might get you killed." Naruto said with a grin while he still kept his eyes closed.

"_Wow that was badass of me_." Naruto thought to himself.

Raiju just snorted. Naruto stick his tongue out mentally.

Naruto got up and looked at the girl in front of him.

"Now who might you be?"

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**With Zabuza**

"Now who the fuck is this guy?" Zabuza asked Gato while looking at his temporary secondary partner.

"Maeda." The guy said with a grin. "Maeda of the Kurokō clan.

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**Done**

**Yes, I made Haku a girl cause she will play a major part on the story and no, sorry to disappoint some but it is not a harem story so no NarutoxHaku but I am sure latter part of the story won't disappoint you guys.**

**Also, now the name of the Naruto's bloodline is up to debate for you guys. I got few names but I am open for any good suggestions.**

**MaelStorm release (suggested by Toshiro of the Eternal Dream)**

**True Storm release (mine and Kamen Rider Zero-Ohki's idea)**

**Thunder Storm release (my idea cause he got a legendary lightning beast inside him)**

**I don't know how to use the poll properly so I will decide from the comments, the first to reach ten comments I will use that name. **

**Please choose or suggest a cool one :D**


	8. Chapter 8 : Wave Arc II

**Hello there guys, before I start the chapter here is the result of the name selection for Naruto's new improved bloodline**

**MaelStorm release****: 7 **

**If I counted right; don't worry guys I am not going to write 'Naruto release' because it sounds funny, I will write as 'MaelStorm release'**

**Hurricane/Tornado release****: 6 **

**Hurricane or Tornado at the end is the same so I am counting them as one for now.**

**ThunderStorm release****: 3 **

**Wow I didn't thought anyone was gonna pin for it**

**There are few other names that were good, like Tensaiton Disaster release (T-Biggz) but the problem is it kinda sound a bit evil'ish, Hyper Storm release (Kamen Rider Zero-ohki) cool name bro, Sky release (Ryuujin96) I like it but it feels like his bloodline is dependent on wind rather than lightning.**

**Well I am not going to use his full powered bloodline any time soon so keep on reviewing about it**

_**Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto.**_

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"Now who might you be?" Naruto questioned the girl in front of him.

"Isn't it rude to ask someone's name before saying your own first?" Haku replied with a playful tone, trying to calm herself down and not to look too suspicious.

"Oh ya, sorry about that." Naruto chuckled nervously and then he did his favorite pose, pointing his index finger towards the sky while looking straight at Haku, "Naruto Uzumaki, future Hokage of Konoha and the savior of the fellow Konoha comrades." Naruto shouted while trying to look badass.

Haku giggled unintentionally, "Well Mr. Savior-san what were you doing all the way out here?"

"Training of course, got tired a bit so was taking a break." Naruto replied while stretching himself. "By the way I still didn't get your name and why are you all the way out here?"

"Uhh, where's my manner. My name is Haku." Haku modestly answered but she was thinking what to say next without revealing too much. "My partner got injured recently, so I was looking for herbs to treat him."

"Hmm, let me help you then. Yo guys, come out." No sooner Naruto said that four shadow clones came out from four different directions. Seeing that Haku got nervous, she was praising herself for not attacking Naruto blindly, here she thought he was at disadvantage but it would seem he had the situation under control from the very beginning.

"Haku-san, show them what kind of herbs you need." Haku showed them a few herbs she had with her. All clones were trying to memorize the herbs. Naruto sighed, "Just bring back anything that looks similar." The clones nodded sheepishly and dashed to the forest.

"Why are you helping me, Naruto-san?" Haku asked genuinely.

"Do you need a reason to help people who are kind?" Naruto replied offhandedly.

Haku was stunned, in her whole life after that incident, she learned one harsh thing about life which was that no one helps another without wanting something in return.

"Thank you." Haku sincerely said, "But why are you training all the way out here? From what I can see you seem to be quite strong already, so why train harder?"

Naruto looked up at the sky as if he was trying to find someone hidden in that vast space.

"To learn my past so that I can move towards the future." Naruto whispered which contradicted greatly towards his earlier outbursts.

Haku's face softened up, "But sometimes it is better to not know about the past. Some pasts are too strong to just let go."

"Then you just have to become stronger." Naruto smirked, "I mean what kind of future you can create if you don't know your own past."

Haku laughed softly while shaking her head, it had not been more than five minutes and she could already say that Naruto was one of a kind.

"Guess you are right, Naruto-san."

Right after that the clones came with lots of leaves…..erm…herbs.

Haku chuckled lightly while she took a few herbs from them.

"Thank you Naruto-san; take care." Haku bowed slightly while she started to head off towards her place.

"Ya, see you soon, Haku-san." Naruto shouted.

"Let us hope that we don't Naruto-san." Haku whispered to herself sadly.

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XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

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**Zabuza's Place**

Haku was rubbing her forehead. Things always seemed to get complicated as long she was involved.

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Flashback

_Haku stopped when she saw the new face in Zabuza's room, the new person was a guy who seemed no more than twenty years old and had dark brown hair, he was wearing normal jonin attire but his Iwa headband was scratched, meaning he was a missing nin from Iwa. But the fact that his head was still attached told her to wait and listen to Zabuza's explanation._

"_I knew Zabuza had a young girl following him but never knew you will be such a hottie." The guy said with a smirk._

"_Nice to meet you too, my name is Haku by the way." Haku replied unfazed._

"_Haku, this is Maeda of the Kurokō clan, and for the time being we will be working together for our current mission." Zabuza intervened._

"_Sure as long as we stay professional." Saying her part Haku went to make the medicine from the herbs._

_Maeda was grinning lecherously at her the entire time but suddenly he stopped when he felt chills running through his spines._

_He looked at Zabuza to see that he was sharpening his Kubikiribōchō, which was surely anywhere but near him, with a kunai. And the fact that he was looking at his lower part wasn't helping either. On pure men instinct he put both his hands in front of his family jewels._

"_Maeda, Haku is my tool, you know that right?" Seeing Maeda nodding, he continued, "And you see I want to keep my tool __**untouched **__and __**clean **__and for some reason I think that one of your body part might make some problems to that but rejoice that __**certain body part**__ has nothing to do with this mission. So do you want me to remove it or…..?" He finished leaving Maeda to figure out the rest._

_Maeda turned around so fast that seemed impossible to normal people, but he was not a normal people but a guy who was going to do his best to protect his manhood._

"_Haku-san, please forgive me for my rude behavior and I hope we can finish the mission professionally and __**as fast as possible**__." With that he jolted out of the room._

Flashback Ends

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"This is not going to end well." Haku sighed while she finished the medicines.

Zabuza was still sharpening his sword, _"No boy is coming near my girl unless I have anything to say about it._" He thought while laughing manically.

Haku sweatdropped. And somewhere one boy sneezed hard and felt his balls growing cold.

He shivered thinking who could be after his crown.

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XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

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**Back to Naruto**

"So anything happened while I was gone?" Yamato asked after they finished their lunch.

"Nah, the usual. Me helping the helpless." Naruto replied as a matter of fact.

Yamato just chuckled, "So what do you plan to do now? I think you got your mirage takedown done, all you need is practice and do it against real opponents."

"Ya that's true. But sensei, i have a few badass sword techniques but because of the side effect I can't exactly use it properly yet and like you said before sometimes I might not have my swords with me, so I came up with an alternative jutsu but I think it might take a while to get it down completely. I need help with that." Naruto said seriously.

"So, can you give me a bit of details of what the jutsu might be like?" Yamato inquired sincerely.

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After a while

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"_Damn if Naruto can pull this off, this technique is going to rival Chidori or even Rasengan._" Yamato thought to himself.

"So, got any idea from where should I start, Yamato-sensei?" Naruto asked nervously, Yamato was quite the whole time during his explanation.

"Naruto." Naruto flinched a bit. "If I want to put it in your term, your jutsu will be one 'badass' jutsu." Yamato smirked when he saw Naruto relaxed. Sometimes pranking the prankster was quite amusing.

"So, this is what I think you should do first."

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After few hours later

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Everyone was eating and after the long day that they just went through, the genins knew that they needed every bit of energy to pass the week if it was going to be same like today.

For team seven, they did tree climbing all day but for different purposes. For Sakura it was to increase her chakra capacity. Sasuke just tried to complete the exercise but he was really close, one day or more and he would complete it. And for Sai, it was to keep an eye on him. After hearing from Yamato, Kakashi was sure that the boy was up to no good. He would have to report about it to Sandaime.

And as for our blond knucklehead, after consulting with Yamato his opinion about himself was strengthened; he was a badass genius. His new jutsu which he came up all by himself could be a high ranked one if he could master it. He did have other strong jutsus on his arsenal but most of them relied on his swords and he couldn't use most of them on whim. His new original on the other hand was quite flexible, at least that was what he was hoping for. But his first step would be chakra control again. He already did tree climbing, water walking and leaf balancing exercise but even with shadow clone he couldn't seem to advance anymore cause of his unusual amount of chakra. So he had to cover it up with elemental chakra control. He already passed the third stage of lightning control, charging up kunai with electricity but the next one seemed hard. He had to use his lightning element to light up a bulb and keep the light on for ten minutes straight. If he tried to use too much power the bulb would explode, too less and it wouldn't light up properly. This exercise was about balancing and maintaining lightning element for longer period.

"_Well, that's what Yamato-sensei said_." Naruto thought to himself.

"Why do you all try so hard? In the end Gato is going to kill you anyway." Inari's shouting stopped Naruto's thought.

"So? He is just a punk with money, we are ninja kid. We are supposed to take care of rich thugs like him." Naruto snorted, this kid was started to get on his nerve.

"What do you think you are? Heroes? All you can do is just talk when you don't know anything about pain." Inari screamed without knowing that he just stepped into a landmine.

The temperature of the room dropped so much that even Tazuna and Tsunami felt it. "_Oh boy, the kid shouldn't have said that_." Yamato thought and look sadly at Naruto.

"We don't know pain, what a laugh kid. From my point of view _you_ are the one who doesn't know pain. I know about your stepfather, he died trying to protect this country like a hero and you are handsomely rewarding him by spitting on his grave acting like a coward and a crybaby. You have your mother and grandfather who are trying their best to make sure _you _don't suffer. You wake up every day to see them smiling and reassuring you that everything will be all right. So where is the pain here? Me and the teme over there…" He pointed Sasuke with his thumb who raised his eyebrow, "wakes up every day in an empty place. No one to console us on our bad days or to compliment us on our better days and yet here we are, still striving to go on. Do you see us blaming others or trying to run away? Kid, if you don't have the courage to stand up then don't pull down those that have courage to go on."

Naruto took a few deep breaths to calm him down and then he looked at Yamato, "Sensei, I am not hungry. I will train for a while." With that he left.

The pin drop silent was broken by Inari's crying while he dashed to his room.

Sasuke also stood up and left.

"Sorry about that, guess they took his word a bit too hard." Kakashi tried to diffuse the situation.

"Senpai, let me go and talk to the boy." Seeing Kakashi nodding, Yamato looked at Tsunami and when she nodded as well, he went up to look for the boy.

Sasuke was standing while looking down at a blond from afar who seems to be resting.

"Dobe."

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With Naruto

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Same peaceful land, same roaring sky, same stormy scene. He wondered why this sight always seemed so perfect even though the scenery of the unending stormy sky and the long quiet landscape contradicted each other. To most it might look chaotic but to him it gave him a sense of serenity to his mind. Was it always like this? This feeling that appeased his loneliness, it was as if the sky was looking out for him. The thunder was screaming louder in anger while the wind was trying to soothe him. He thought it was only in his mindscape but even though he was here sitting in his mindscape, he could still hear the thunder's cry as well as the wind's gentle touch from the real world.

"I messed up."

"**Human tends to mess up."**

"I am supposed to be stronger than this."

"**Showing your weak side doesn't mean you don't have strength."**

"Still doesn't justify me blowing my top like that to the kid."

"**Compare to you, his suffering doesn't hold a candle."**

"Why me? Why was I condemned like this?"

"**Patience, young one. You will have your answer."**

Naruto closed his eyes and let his fatigue finally caught up to him.

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XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

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**Few Days Later**

It had been more than a week. According to the jonins, Zabuza might attack at any given day with reinforcements. So team seven, after Kakashi recovered fully, stayed with Tazuna and watched the bridge while Yamato and Naruto looked after his family.

As for Naruto, he and Yamato were in Tazuna's place looking after his family. Naruto was trying to finish the next part of lightning control exercise. He could keep the light going on for five minutes max, after that it either started to wither or exploded depending on his chakra behavior. First he was a bit skeptic but after thinking more deeply about his jutsu, he understood that he needed to keep the lightning chakra flowing. He also needed to start doing water element training as well, according to Yamato his chakra ought to be mature enough to start his second elemental training. And for his new particular jutsu he needed that.

Suddenly a loud explosion shook the ground.

"Naruto, is everything in place?" Naruto nodded, "OK, let's move out fast." With that both of them dashed out of the house.

Two thugs slowly headed toward the house when they saw the ninjas leaving.

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A bit far away

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Yamato reached the explosion site, a secluded part of the town far away from the bridge, just as he predicted. He was met with a young man and by the looks of his headband he seemed to be a missing nin from Iwa.

"Naruto, be careful. This one looks tough." Naruto jumped back getting the hidden message.

"I am Maeda of the Kurokō clan. Pleasure to meet you." The man introduced himself.

"Yamato of Konohagakure, you made the explosion to draw me out, didn't you?" Yamato stated.

"Yes and before you Konoha scums ask, no I am not going to bother to let you go. Now come and let us finish the battle fast." Maeda dashed as soon as he finished his sentence while thinking, "_The sooner I finish the fight the fast I get away from Zabuza with my balls intact_."

Yamato and Maeda started off with taijutsu while Naruto was watching them intently waiting for Yamato's signal. Yamato came up with some codes between them because it helped Naruto to intervene accordingly while giving him a bit insight about the enemy, as a backup to other Shinobi teams it helps a lot.

"You are one talented guy out for blood it seems, too bad." Yamato told his opponent with a stern voice.

"Gotcha." Naruto thought to himself. The code was that when Yamato would talk to any guy about their skills, depending on the word it varied, here the word talent meant this guy was a fresh jonin but had skills. The word blood meant color red which meant he was an A rank ninja but here it seemed this guy was borderline A. And when Yamato said too bad it meant this guy had a bloodline, bloodlines were always bad news.

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At the Bridge

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Kakashi was cursing himself, he was stuck with Zabuza while Sasuke and Sai were fighting a masked nin but the problem was the masked nin got Hyoten and looked more experienced than his students. He had to finish his fight with Zabuza fast cause for some reason he knew that his 'Backup team' would be arriving a bit late this time.

As for Sasuke, he was pissed. No scratch that, he was livid. He and Sai just couldn't mix no matter what they do. The opponent they were fighting was an ice user, a very strong bloodline. The person was a boy wearing a green haori with white trimmings with a long scratched mask. His hair was gathered in a white bun holder, while two locks of his hair fell loose framing his face, bound with metal hair cuffs at the ends. His mask was blank with narrow eyeholes and long diagonal scratch mark in the middle.

Sai was strong but both of their weakness was water and the opponent was using it quite well against them; Sai's ink beasts and Sasuke's fire attacks weren't doing anything.

"Move in, we take him down using taijutsu." Sasuke only hoped that it would work after all he couldn't keep eye on both of them on close range.

"Ice release: Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals."

"Oh fuck me."

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XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

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**Back at Tazuna's Place**

Inari was staring down at the thugs that were holding his mom.

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Flashback

"_I am sorry Naruto-san." Inari told Naruto, it was the next day of their little outburst. After hearing from his sensei, Inari understood his life is painful but there are other people like him, some had it worse._

"_Nah, its ok Inari. I am sorry as well, shouldn't have blown my tops like that." Naruto smiled at the kid. Seeing Inari relaxing his posture he continued, "But I have one advice to you Inari. Don't run away from your fears. You still have your loving mother and courageous grandfather; cherish them, protect them. Don't lose them." Saying his part, Naruto ruffled the boy's hair._

"_Be strong."_

Flashback Ends

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"Let my mom go!" Inari shouted, he was shaking while holding the knife but he would be damned if he would let another of his precious person die.

"Look what we have here, a little brat trying to be hero." One thug smugly said.

"Don't touch my son." Tsunami cried, she looked at Inari, "Run Inari!"

"No, I am not going to lose you too mom. I am not backing down." The moment Inari finished that one vase and one picture behind him transformed into two Naruto. One grabbed Inari closing his eyes and shouted at Tsunami, "Close your eyes." Tsunami thinking what dreadful thing might happen closed her eyes.

The thugs readied themselves but before they could use the hostage card they were thrown off by huge bleeding nose. In front them is the other Naruto clone who just used the infamous "Sexy no jutsu". A technique so strong that was able to throw off even Hokage, what were these mere punks could do against that. He also learned it the hard way not to use the jutsu while in front of women so he told Tsunami to close her eyes.

"OK, Inari take your mom and go somewhere safe." Naruto said while letting the Inari go. Inari's eyes opened to see his mother safe and thugs are down. He looked at Naruto and smiled.

"Thanks, Naruto-nii."

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XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

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**With Backup Team**

"Earth Release: Earth Flow Spears."

"Steel Release: Impervious Armor."

The hardened earth spikes shattered when they touched the grey metal armor.

"Shit! The steel users from Iwa are always asking for trouble." Yamato thought to himself, he couldn't go close range and his strong long range attacks weren't working unless, he looked at Naruto and immediately Naruto made a cross sign with his hand while nodding his head upside down; meaning no one was in the vicinity and they could go all out.

"Guess time to bring in the big guns."

Yamato jumped back and lured Maeda into more secluded area. For some reason Maeda was rushing the fight and it was working on Yamato's favor.

"Steel Release: Metal Spears." Maeda threw long spikes at him which came out from his hand.

"Wood Release: Wood Locking Wall." The wood wall stopped the spikes but it did its main purpose, which is to surprise Maeda. That few seconds was enough for Naruto.

Maeda's instinct kicked in and he ducked just in time to dodge an super-fast lightning charged kunai but he had to dash to the right to dodge another one but before he could even land another kunai came and struck his leg. He hissed, even with his armor the kunai impaled deeper than his liking. He saw the genin sitting in front him grinning. He saw red, with pure rage he charged at Naruto but when he was close enough he heard the kid saying 'Boom'. Maeda didn't have enough time to react. He got the full force of the blast but his armor took most of the damage. He wasn't injured but it left him dazed.

"Take that Shadow Clone: Explosion version." Said Naruto while coming out from the place where the last kunai was thrown from.

"Wood Release: Tree Bind Flourishing Burial." Naruto just gave Yamato enough time to finish the battle. Strong dense wood came from the ground and bound Maeda.

"No point struggling, the wood is going to sap your chakra; you put more chakra it is going to sap faster." Yamato said while trying to catch his breath. Naruto rushed to support his sensei.

"Didn't know the Konoha had another wood user, so what now? I don't think you two are fast enough to catch up with your other teammates." Maeda grinned even though he knew he was done for, but if he played his cards right the Konoha nins would dash to save their comrades leaving him alone.

"Well who said I was here in the first place." Naruto grinned, then 'poof'.

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Back with Team Seven

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Sasuke was panting hard and Sai was down. He got hit by too many senbons. They were heavily outmatched, be it jutsu or tactics. On the good side, he just awakened his Sharingan but he was having doubts if he was going to live through this.

Suddenly a kunai came inside the dome between the mirror space and 'poof'.

"Naruto Uzumaki, at your ….." Naruto look around to see Sai was down but alive and Sasuke was barely up. "Crap, I am late."

Before anyone can retort Naruto took out something from his pocket quickly, "_Guess I have to act fast_." With that he dropped whatever he had in his hand.

Suddenly whole dome was covered with thick smoke.

"Smoke bombs." The masked nin thought.

After a while the smoke cleared but there was no sign of Sai or Sasuke.

"What did you do?"

"Magic." Naruto waved his fingers in a childlike manner.

What Naruto really did was as soon as the he dropped the bombs he created four shadow clones, two carried Sai and Sasuke to the end of the dome while the other two henged into kunai and was thrown outside of the dome through the space between mirrors. Getting out of the dome the clones changed back and got close to the other side of the frozen wall and used Kawarimi with Sai and Sasuke, after that they did the same way to get two more clones out who took Sai and Sasuke near Sakura and Tazuna, away from the battlefield.

"You really care about those that are precious to you." Hearing that Naruto just tilted his head, "I am their backup, punk. It is my job to protect my comrades, now come, let's fight."

Naruto drew his swords fast enough to block the barrage of senbons but few went past his guard and hit him. By the looks of it he figured that his opponent was going to keep it like that, if it was a battle of stamina any other time he would have won but right now he knew he didn't have the time for that. He had to draw the Hyoten user out of his mirrors.

"Please, stop fighting. I don't want to kill unnecessarily."

"Stop bitching, will ya?"

"Shadow clone jutsu." Creating ten shadow clones, he commanded, "Wall Formation." Hearing that all the clones formed a wall around him, some stand on the shoulders of other to make sure even Real Naruto's head was covered.

The masked nin was surprised as well but suddenly saw there was light coming inside of clone wall.

"_Whatever it is, it won't be good_." With that he bombarded the clones with senbons. But suddenly the clones made way for real Naruto.

"Eat this, Twin moon storm style: crescent moon."

A huge lightning powered white energy wave came from Naruto's sword _(A/N: kind of like Wide white colored Getsuga tenshou)_, from where the masked nin was it really looked like a crescent moon with a bit lightning flare in it. The energy wave shattered the mirrors it hit. Not liking what he saw, he dashed towards Naruto with a kunai to finish the battle fast.

"Gotcha." Naruto said without even looking. To the ice user's surprise lots of pebble and shuriken here and there transformed into Naruto. Before he could even land two Naruto came back and tried to grab him from two different sides, one came low and one high. His open option was jumping which he did but no sooner he did he saw one clone bend down and another used him as a step tool to jump to catch up and before he could do anything to his surprise the clone in front spew water at him to catch him off guard while real Naruto used the midair clone as another stepping tool to go higher than him. He flipped his body in front and shouted,

"Uzumaki style: Mirage takedown." With that the real Naruto bought his foot down directly at his head, the masked nin didn't saw that coming at all.

He was shot down but before he could even touch the ground two clones from different side shoulder tackled him instantly taking him out but also making sure that the masked nin didn't break his neck by hitting the ground.

Naruto safely landed and went beside the masked nin to see if he was alive. After that he looked at his swords, there were too many cracks, he hated this. His technique was good and he could use few times but his swords couldn't handle the power causing them to crack on the first shot making them useless. Soon the ice started breaking apart, indirectly declaring him the winner.

But it was short-lived when he heard the explosion.

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Other part of the bridge

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When Zabuza saw his accomplice got defeated and he got caught by Kakashi, he was sure it was over. But before Kakashi could pierce him with his Raikiri both of them were blown off by an explosion nearby.

"You missed idiot." Gato hissed.

"Sorry boss, it is hard to aim with all the mist." One of his goon replied.

"Gato." Zabuza spat. The explosion was too close and it almost took both him and Kakashi out.

"Sorry Zabuza but I didn't intend to pay you from the beginning. Too much hassle for my taste. Also your bounty is kinda high so it is more profitable for me to just dispose of you. Sick'em boys."

But before any of the thugs did anything Naruto jumped in front of them.

"Stop evil doers, for you shall be punished for your crimes." Naruto shouted while doing his favorite pose.

"Naruto it isn't time to act like this, fall back." Kakashi ordered, he doesn't know if even he can hold off all of them with his current condition.

"Look at the kid, go run back to your mama brat. All of you guys are outnumbered." One of the thugs laughed at him.

"Outnumbered? Me? Preposterous!" Naruto laughed manically making everyone sweatdropped.

"Multi Shadow Clone jutsu." The whole area was filled with over hundreds of Naruto.

"Chaaaaaaaaaaarge!" Naruto roared. All the clones took out their kunai, shuriken anything they have and charged. Against a seasoned ninja this clones wouldn't be much of a problem as one hit could dispel them but against thugs who didn't know much about hardcore battles it was enough.

The clones kept on pushing but slowly they were being pushed back, Kakashi and Zabuza made a truce and were helping but Naruto knew they couldn't keep it up. "_To kill a snake one has to take out the head"_ he signaled his clones to make a way for him and as soon as a clear way was made, "Uzumaki style: piercing phantom arrow one-shot version." he channeled all his left over chakra into the kunai and threw it with all his remaining might.

Gato didn't even see what hit him.

Before Naruto became unconscious, he heard Yamato voice and Villagers' shout.

"Another typical day of my life."

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XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

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**Unknown Place**

Maeda couldn't believe his luck, after his bluff that Gato might come with all his men, there was an explosion which solidified his theory, the wood users left him thinking he wouldn't be able to get out of there anytime soon.

"Damn I had to use 'Iron tower' to get out, now I have to lay low for a while." But before he could continue running suddenly he felt all his chakra leaving his body. He fell to the ground but he couldn't stand up as if the ground was restricting him. He heard someone behind him but for some reason he didn't wanted to look back.

"Three down, three more to go."

No one heard the lone screaming.

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**Done**

**A simple question, do you think I should change Sasuke's second element or keep it to lightning?**


	9. Chapter 9 : Wave Arc Finale

**Hello there guys and as always thank you for the reviews and ratings**

**By the looks of it most people want Sasuke to have earth element as second nature to see what he can do with it.**

**Dragon0905: don't worry I will make Sasuke work his part as well, he isn't getting anything for free**

**Ryuujin96: Don't worry pal, wait and see what I have in stock for Naruto **

**Thank you everyone else for leaving your ideas and suggestions **

**For now enjoy the story **

_**Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto.**_

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Naruto woke up groaning, "_Damn, I feel like just head-butted Kyuubi_." He thought to himself while rubbing his head.

"Glad to see you're up." Yamato said while reading the book about 'Bloodline'.

"How long was I out?" Naruto asked as he got up to get ready.

"One day. Let's go I will tell you what happened on the way." Yamato told his apprentice while he got up as well.

When he got out of the room, Naruto noticed he was upstairs in Tazuna's house, but as soon as he came down he was met with Inari by the infamous tackle-hug. He made out only three words of Inari's exciting babbling, 'Hero', 'Save' and 'Thank you'. After settling down Inari he figured out that the village was going to throw a celebration party the day after for their liberation where most of the villagers were involved and they were more than welcomed.

Naruto and Yamato went to meet Kakashi, Zabuza and his accomplice. What Naruto heard from Yamato that the metal guy escaped after Yamato left him and he truly wasn't working for Zabuza nor did the demon brothers, only the guy he fought back at the bridge. He was also informed that team seven would be guarding the bridge and Tazuna although there were no chances of Tazuna getting attacked but they were not taking any risks. They were to meet with Zabuza cause after Gato's betrayal there was no reason for them to continue fighting so they stopped their battle moreover Zabuza also helped out to hold back the thugs. According to Kakashi this meeting was just a mean to say their farewell.

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**At the Meeting Place**

Naruto and Yamato came to their meeting place to find Zabuza looking at Kakashi with sympathy, who was weeping at some frozen pieces of a book. Seeing them arriving Zabuza shook his head.

"Finally the brat is here. There, go ahead." Zabuza motioned the masked nin.

"Naruto-san, nice to meet you again. I hope you don't hold a grudge about what happened before." Masked nin asked in a deep voice.

"Nah, it's cool. So what are you guys going to do now?" Naruto asked.

"Before that, can I ask you why you didn't kill me?" Masked nin inquired. Seeing Naruto's expression he explained, "When you used your taijutsu technique I was heading for the ground head first, if I had hit like that surely my neck would have broken but one of your clone interfered by tackling me sideway."

"Ah that, because you didn't harm my comrades that bad. You were always giving me chances and I am sure you went easy on them as well. So why kill you when I can just knock you out?" Naruto answered as a matter of fact.

Masked nin was stunned at his response, he just said "Thank you."

"Done? Now let's go, we wasted enough time as it is and we don't have ryo, not a single fucking ryo." Zabuza grumbled out.

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked curiously.

"What I mean brat, that after all the shit that we went through I don't have any single ryo with me and now I have to go find other jobs to raise funds." Zabuza barked; he was not having a good day.

"Why don't you loot Gato's hideout then? He looked like someone who would have tons of cash and _shit_ in his hideout." Naruto simply stated.

Everyone moved their heads and looked at Naruto with a blank face.

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**Few Hours Later**

"So what are we doing here again?" Naruto asked his sensei. Currently he, Yamato, Zabuza and his partner were hiding in front of Gato's hideout.

"They….." Pointing towards Zabuza and his accomplice Yamato started explaining, "want to rob the place and we are here on an unofficial C rank mission from Wave to find anything useful for them. They will mark it down and later will send our payments." Naruto shook his head and just asked one thing, "Do you want to do it the subtle way or the Naruto way."

"Let's see the _Naruto _way." Zabuza said with a smirk, before Yamato could protest Naruto grinned and charged yelling his favorite jutsu.

"Multi Shadow Clone jutsu."

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An hour later

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"This is great!" Zabuza was having a field day, when they came it was already chaotic here after the news of Gato's demise but when the remaining thugs saw the sea of clones attacked them with a laughing Zabuza, shit just got worse. They finished of the rest of the thugs; they were relieved when they saw Gato's main vault room was unharmed. Opening it wasn't that hard for them but what they found there surprised them. Ryo and expensive objects were there true, as well as some documents of importance to their guess but what shocked them was there were some ninja items as well and from the look of it they were quite rare ones too. One item caught Naruto's attention which was a silver locket with Uzumaki symbol in it. He looked at Yamato for confirmation and when he got it, he took it and shoved it in his pocket.

"Wow this place is stacked. Guess it _was _worthwhile after all." Zabuza grinned.

"You know the deal Zabuza, some of it we are taking for the wave. I am pretty sure they _do _belong to them." Yamato said sternly, Zabuza just waved him off, even half of this place was more than he thought.

"Why don't you just take over the business as well?" Naruto asked while he was inspecting a taijutsu scroll, he couldn't actually understand what it was but by the looks of it, it looked like something certain someone could use.

Zabuza slowly turned to him, "What?"

Without looking at him, Naruto pressed on, "I mean Gato is dead and last I heard he was some kind of multimillionaire pig or something and had a big business, why not just take over the damn business? If you can't maintain it properly just give it to any trustworthy people and share the profit or whatever. I am sure you will make better use of it than that puny bastard." He pocketed the scroll and turned around, "If that pighead can do it I am sure anyone can."

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Few moments later

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Naruto's face was turning from blue to purple, why?

Because Zabuza got him in a headlock and was pulling hard on his side while Yamato got him by the leg pulling on the opposite side.

"Give me the boy! He will be the salvation of Kiri."

"….can't….."

"Hell no! He is _my _student, I ain't giving you shit."

"…breath…air…."

"Go fuck yourself, you tree hugging monkey."

"….save….."

"Suck on your sword, baby demon."

"…mommy…..daddy…..?"

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After a while

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Zabuza was growling while pulling out the senobons from his butt cheek.

"Zabuza-sama, you shouldn't try to get stuffs," looking at Naruto, "or people like that." The masked nin chided. Zabuza waved him off. Meanwhile Yamato was trying to bring Naruto back to the conscious land.

"What happened? I saw white light and two figures were calling me." Naruto said in a dazed expression.

"Nothing Naruto, just a bad dream." Yamato answered quickly.

Zabuza just smirked and looked at the documents; it was more than enough now. He knew he wasn't the type to do this kind of stuffs but if it was that person, maintaining the millionaire business might be possible. And with all of these other plans would advance faster than they predicted. But he had to make the next move; he didn't want it to be like that last time.

"Remove the mask." Zabuza said to his accomplice, more like as an order.

The Hyoten user was surprised but removed the mask.

"Haku?" Naruto asked surprised.

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**With Team seven**

The bridge was almost done. Even with all the cheering team seven wasn't in very good mood. Sakura was sighing because she didn't contribute much in this mission. Sai was because he didn't get enough info on either Naruto or the missing nins. Sasuke because he realized even with the Sharingan he still had a long way to go, the crushing defeat put a bad taste on his mouth.

"Kakashi-sensei, why did you let Zabuza and his accomplice go?" Sakura asked.

"You were not in the front line Sakura, Zabuza helped keeping the thugs in bay with me and Naruto before the villagers came. So I just can't backstab him after that." Kakashi explained.

"We should have removed them, they are missing nin and they might cause problems for Konoha later." Sai said as if he was reading an instruction.

"Pray tell me who told you that? Cause as far as I remember neither I nor the academy teaches that way." Kakashi said in sing-sang voice, already knowing the answer.

Sai shut up knowing not to agitate his sensei any more than he already did.

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XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

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**Back With Naruto**

"So you use Haku as to gather information on her normal self, while on combat she dresses as a boy to either help you directly or act as a hunter nin to get you out of trouble." Yamato summarized the information then asked, "But why are you telling us all that?" For the past hour, Zabuza explained how did he and Haku met and how did they operate together. Haku was a girl with a kind nature and for that Zabuza usually wouldn't order her to intervene with their missions directly, it was either by acting like a normal girl she would gather information or wearing hunter nin mask with same getup she would save Zabuza from tight spots. But if things would go really bad then she would fight directly using her other mask.

"So that you can take her with you." Zabuza said with a grim voice.

"What?!" All three shouted in unison but before they could retort he gestured them to stop and listen first. He looked at Haku, "Haku, with all of these I have right now, I will meet with the main rebellion forces and things will start getting ugly for sure. Last time I lost too many of my friends and comrades when our assassination attempt on the Mizukage in the coup d'état failed. As a Shinobi, you don't know when you will die, but if you come with me Haku, the risk is higher cause of your bloodline. I don't want to risk losing my daughter." Haku sobbed and ran to hug Zabuza who returned her hug and started stroking her hair.

"But if she comes with us you know she would have to be a leaf Shinobi, and there is her record of helping you." Yamato asked, not sure where this was going.

"Well as far as I am concerned a boy who has Hyoten helped me, not a girl who is good with water jutsu. Just keep her bloodline a secret for now and tell those who you can truly trust." Zabuza said but everyone understood the request he was implying.

"Hell ya, we will take care of Haku-nee and she can join our group dattebayo." Naruto grinned.

Everyone was looking at him like he grew a second head. "I like this kid." Zabuza said with even bigger grin. Haku was stunned, Naruto just called her 'Haku-nee' and Zabuza declared her as his daughter, this day was getting better and better for her expect for Zabuza's leaving part.

"Naruto things are not easy…."

"I won't prank Anbu anymore."

"Zabuza, don't worry we will take care of Haku and it will be good to have a level headed Shinobi in my team for once." Yamato said in a very, _very _sincere voice.

Naruto snorted but didn't say anything.

"Take care of yourself Haku." Zabuza stroked Haku's hair one last time and then motioned Naruto to come to him.

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**In Wave**

Yamato and Naruto decided to tell Kakashi about Haku and later they would tell Sandaime, for now they were going with the guard bluff that Haku was a genin level ninja who _unwillingly _served and guarded Gato and after hearing his death, she wanted a clean start. Sakura didn't have any thought about it, Sai assumed that it was a normal procedure but Sasuke felt something wrong, when he was practicing to keep his sharingan up for long time he saw Haku's chakra and it felt similar to the masked nin but seeing no one was making any fuss he decided to kept quiet for now.

The Konoha shinobis decided that with everything completely done and they should be heading back.

"You will be coming back, right nii-san?" Inari sobbed.

"Of course, but you better be stronger Inari." Naruto laughed while ruffling Inari's hair.

Saying their good-bye they started to head back.

"So what should we name our bridge now?" Tazuna asked his villagers, "Maybe the great super Tazuna Bridge." His reply was an awkward silence. "Fine, how about naming after our hero? The Great Naruto Bridge." hearing that, everyone shouted in approval.

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**Hokage Tower**

The way back to Konoha wasn't bad, team seven kept to themselves while Naruto was talking nonstop with Haku and she seemed to enjoy that. And after reaching Konoha they went straight to the Hokage office, giving the normal brief Kakashi dismissed his team and stayed back for the second briefing. "So Haku here is an apprentice of Zabuza, an A rank missing nin, while holding Hyoten, a rare bloodline, and she wants asylum here in Konoha for safety cause Zabuza is going to make bigger problem now in Kiri if I am not mistaken. Tell me if I got everything right?" The old Hokage sighed while rubbing his forehead.

"Hokage-sama Haku here is a talented person and for the time being we decided it is better that her bloodline is hidden for now until we have everything solidified so that some unwanted people can't cause trouble. And it would be best if Haku joins our team." Yamato insisted.

"So what about you Haku? Say if Kiri is in trouble, who would you choose? Konoha or Kiri?" Hokage asked to test Haku's loyalty.

"Hokage-sama, I don't have any good memories or attachment in Kiri, and if Konoha can give me people that can become my precious ones than I would die for Konoha." Hokage relaxed, "But Hokage-sama, if I hear Zabuza-sama is in trouble I would like to help him at any cost, rest assured I would take any necessary punishment for doing so and I would rather die than to sell any Konoha secrets." Haku finished with a determined voice. Hiruzen started thinking what would be the best course of action.

Naruto sighed; guess he has to pull one of his trump cards.

"If you let Haku join my team, I won't prank Anbu for four months."

Hokage jumped from his seat, "Make it six month and you got yourself a deal." Naruto just waved his hand showing he was ok with it but didn't show his usual jumpy attitude. Hiruzen was saddened but didn't show it on the outside, after that incident he tried to crack a joke once in a while to see Naruto laugh but never got the reaction he wanted. He really missed Naruto's smile and his hearty attitude.

"Alright, genin Haku will be joining 'The Backup Team' under Yamato's command." Hokage started writing some document and gave it to Yamato.

Yamato read it and looked at Haku, "Welcome to 'The Backup Team'."

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**Done.**

**Till next time everyone.**


	10. Chapter 10 : A Break

**Here is the new chapter guys, and as always thank you for supporting the story**

**Ryuujin96: Glad you liked that and about that move it's explained on this chapter, about the second question, Naruto suggested to loot Gato's place first time and take over the business second time. And about the three man cell the answer is yes, enjoy the story bro**

**shadow-hunter104: Sorry pal, I try my best to upload the chapters weekly but real life could be pain in the ass sometimes.**

**bad girl 61, ZyiareHellsing, Hee-Ho Master, bloodyrose, enjoy it, me, Kain129, Kaorilamb, Dragon0905, Stazy, FinalKingdomHearts, Yana5, thunder18, buterflypuss, Dracoessa, MiseryWolf97, grimreap114 thank you the reviews.**

**Few things I want to confirm guys, firstly this is not a harem story and if you want to see any particular pair (few are already set) please let me know, I will do what I can. And about the grammar part I told before one of the reason i am writing this is to improve my knowledge on English, few of my friends told me that they will help (I don't know when) with revising the first chapters, I will let you guys know about that.**

_**Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto.**_

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"Thank you for letting Haku to stay with Naruto." Yamato said sincerely.

"They both seem to view each other as a family. Besides after all the hardships that kid went through, he deserves every bit of happiness he can get." Hiruzen said while smoking through his pipe, "I just hope Naruto forgives this old man for his incompetence to do anymore." Though he whispered the last part only for himself.

"What about them?" Yamato asked in a serious voice.

Hiruzen put his pipe down and thought about it for a while before continuing, "Do what Zabuza said, the girl knows Hyoton so she must be good in water element; teach her more in that particular area. The only person that may find out something about Haku is Danzo because of Sai which may cause problems if we don't handle it appropriately. So make sure Haku doesn't use anything that she used on the last battle and if possible try to tell her not to use her senbons too much either. Her bloodline can't be kept secret forever but it is better if that part is told sometime later when she is more prepared." Hiruzen explained, sometimes he wondered if his elders were meant to hamper his work rather than to help him, maybe he ought to find some replacement for them. Sooner the better.

"Thank you, I will tell Haku about it. Also can we take a week off, Sandaime-sama? Haku has to adjust with our team first and it might take a while." Yamato pointed out.

"Sure, they need a break after a long A rank mission." Hiruzen agreed.

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**With Naruto**

"Naruto-kun, when was the last time you clean this place?" Haku sighed, everywhere it was the same for her. Even while traveling with Zabuza he would leave _everything _to her except the killing and maiming part.

Naruto laughed nervously while stroking his hair on the back, he was glad that Hokage let Haku to stay with him as he really needed some company at home. Sure, training with friends and sensei is fun but at the end when he returned home it reminded him of what he was missing. "Don't worry Haku-nee, I will clean this up in a jiffy. Shadow Clone jutsu!" Three clones popped into existence. "Alright guys go start cleaning the place, one of you go and get a futon but be sure to henge yourself." Naruto ordered out, the clones made a mock salute gesture and ran to do their parts.

"I will help Naruto-kun, I am used to this so don't worry." With that Haku started helping the clones but it was more her ordering the around the clones. "By the way Naruto-kun, what was all the pranking the anbu about?"

Naruto scratched his head sheepishly. He really didn't know how Haku would take it, "Well, me and my friend thought it would be good for my infiltration and sensing skills." Naruto replied looking rather embarrassed, but seeing Haku's confused face he knew that he had to elaborate further. "It is nothing dangerous and I don't go inside more restricted areas. All I do is just to get inside anbus' bases without getting noticed and pranking them. It will mostly be something like coloring their cloths or switching the toilet signs, harmless pranks if I might add. It helps a lot for my stealth training and the best part is that _everyone _knows it is me but they don't have proof." Naruto finished while laughing trying to sound like an evil mastermind.

"You wear orange and your hair color is blond and you are telling me that Konoha's Anbu can't capture you?" Haku deadpanned.

"Ah, that is a trade secret my dear Haku-nee." Naruto replied while waving his index finger. He chuckled inwardly remembering how it all started.

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Flashback

"_So after painting the Hokages' faces I was able to keep them off my ass for two whole hours until Iruka-sensei caught me." Naruto explained his last grand prank enthusiastically._

"_**It does sound quite amusing especially the fact that you were wearing all orange and still lasted that long.**__" Raiju chuckled. Naruto beamed up; from time to time both of them would just sit around and talk about themselves. Naruto really cherished these moments. "__**So when are you going to strike next?**__" Raiju asked smirking._

"_I wish I could but now that I am genin, it won't be a good idea." Naruto pouted._

_Raiju thought for a while, from what he learned after hearing Naruto's stories that he was quite good at pranking and usually didn't get caught immediately; meaning he knew how to infiltrate and keep himself hidden for quite some time. Raiju grinned, the kid knew lots of good ninja skills but used them only for pranking and in real ninja missions he was like a brawler or more like a hot-headed fighter. Raiju looked at Naruto and thought for a minute if he could use this to train Naruto._

"_**Why not keep pranking but target higher? It was quite a show before but now with the ninja skills and jutsu you have your pranking will be more amusing.**__" Raiju baited._

"_Really?" Naruto jumped up, he looked at Raiju with excited expecting eyes._

"_**Yes, continue pranking but don't do it often, plan it out and target high strong places like jonin lounge, anbu base; hmm, especially anbu base. BUT…**__" Raiju sternly said before Naruto could say anything, "__**change your attire fully, use your jutsus wisely, observe the place you are going to strike and make sure you left no evidence to trace the prank back to you. Wouldn't it be more fun if everyone knows who is doing the pranks but no way to catch him?**__" Raiju explained._

_Naruto's determined eyes answered everything._

_Raiju chuckled openly._

Flashback Ends

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After that Naruto made a special getup and used it only when he pranked, it was a normal anbu attire but the flak jacket and metal arm guards were dark grey and it also had a hoodie to cover his head to hide his hair, he also used face mask to cover his whiskers and dark sunglass to hide his eyes. All in all it was the perfect getup for him to infiltrate any place, no one was able to catch him (except Iruka) when he used to wear the 'kill-me' orange jumpsuit, who the hell was going to catch him now that he wore the 'dark-knight' suit of his.

Naruto shook his head while chuckling.

"Anything I should know?" Haku said smiling.

"Nah, just remembered something funny." Naruto replied back.

"So I am to guess you use some 'super-awesome' jutsu to prank the anbu?" Haku smiled while ordering the clones to clean. "_I could get used to this_." She thought to herself.

"Heh, you are the one that has 'super-awesome' ice jutsu, the mirror of doom!" Naruto exaggerated.

"It is not that strong Naruto-kun," Haku giggled, "It is a B rank ice release area type jutsu. But you beat mine with yours, didn't you?" Haku pointed out. "What was that anyway?"

"Uhh that reminds me now that you will be on our team so I guess I should tell you that….." Naruto leaned in with serious face, Haku was taken aback by the gesture but she got serious and leaned in as well. "You are in a super awesome team filled with super epic members!" Naruto jumped back cheering.

Haku looked at him and then facepalmed.

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With the outside clone

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The clone just bought a new futon and some other necessary stuff, _except cloths_, for Haku. After Naruto found out that just by using henge he can buy stuffs at a normal rate, he used it regularly even though it hurt a bit every time seeing how people viewed him. Suddenly the clone was pulled back from his thought by a voice.

"H-Hello Naruto-kun, how was your last mission?" Hinata asked in a gentle voice.

The clone looked at Hinata and lightened up, "Why not come and ask the boss? He would be pissed if he learns that I talked to you and you didn't come after that." The clone shivered a bit, a pissed of Naruto was someone no one should tread lightly if especially Hinata was involved. Prime example, Neji the arrogant fate-whipped bitch.

"Sure Na-Naruto-kun. By the way what are all those stuffs you are carrying?" Hinata asked.

"Umm, well you see…"

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**Sometime Later**

"I wonder, do you even clean your place at all?" Haku sighed when she put the last garbage bag out.

"Hey for my defense I always train so usually don't have enough time." Naruto defended himself.

"What would you do if any girl would want to come at your place?" Haku asked with a smirk.

Before Naruto could reply there was a knock on the door. "I am getting that." Saying that Haku went and opened the door to see Naruto's other clone with a girl, she had to admit to herself the girl was quite cute and beautiful but for some reason she looked a tad bit agitated. The clone went inside and dispelled himself. Moments later Naruto came out and brightened up, from the clones memory he learned that Hinata knew about what happened back at Wave, at least the summarized version;

"Hey Hinata-chan. Glad you came, I was going to introduce Haku-nee to my friends anyway." Looking at Haku, he continued, "Haku-nee, this is Hinata-chan, a very close friend of mine." Hinata blushed after hearing Naruto's declaration but she moved a bit closer to Naruto and took a hold of his jacket lightly as if saying to Haku that Naruto belonged to her.

Haku chuckled at the whole ordeal but before she could talk to Hinata Naruto beamed up, "Awww, you want to hug me Hinata-chan?"

"Eh…eeeeeeeeeeep!.." Hinata squeaked when Naruto gave her a huge bear hug, "_Score_." Naruto thought to himself while tightening his hug and stroking her hair with his cheek. But his happy moment didn't last long as he felt some stinging feeling in his hand, he took a look to see that some senbons hit his bicep, he growled at Haku and tightened his hug with Hinata,

"What the hell, Haku-nee?" Haku didn't say anything but pointed at Hinata. Naruto picked her up a bit to look at her face to see she fainted while steams were coming out from her ears. Naruto just sighed.

"Why don't you put the poor girl down?" Haku suggested although she was enjoying the drama.

"Ya ya, got it." Naruto picked Hinata up bridal style and cradled her body tighter while went around the house to put her in his bed. "_He could have just put her down in the sofa, it was closer_." Haku just shook her head.

"Naruto-kun, go get some foods please and no clones." Haku suggested but it sounded more like an order.

"Why?" Naruto whined loudly.

"Because there is no _decent _food in here and your friend there might be hungry and I want to talk with her alone." Haku said firmly.

Naruto just grunted and went out mumbling.

"Now as for you." Haku went to the kitchen and started looking for some smelling salt.

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After half an hour later

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Naruto was seriously pissed; chances like this didn't come often, he knew he just couldn't go and hugged Hinata anytime he wanted but today he found an excuse to hug her and Haku had to ruin it.

"She was so soft." Naruto giggled to himself, "Damn, control man. Control!"

Well at least he could spend the whole day with her today. He wanted to run there but with all the food he was carrying he just jogged for now; he could use 'Shadow clone' but Yamato warned him not to use that too much on public places. He also got some cinnamon bun as an apology for Hinata. Maybe he could ask her to come and train with him and Haku, oh the possibilities.

Unbeknownst to him, Sakura and Ino were talking in front of the same road; when Sakura saw Naruto, she just rolled her eyes and told Ino, "Here we go again; the baka is going to ask for another date."

Ino just giggled a bit, "But you have to admit he looks a bit cooler now." Sakura looked at Ino with a raised eyebrow.

"Hey girls, how are you doing?" Naruto asked when he saw them but before he could say anymore Sakura raised her hand,

"No Naruto I am not going on a date with you even you buy sweet stuffs for me." Sakura said in an annoyed voice.

Naruto narrowed his eyes, "Sorry Sakura, I didn't come to ask you out and this is not for you. Sheesh." Naruto replied back with an annoyed voice as well and just walked past them. The girls were dumbfounded at his response.

"Did Naruto just shove you aside Sakura?" Ino asked in a surprised tone.

Sakura didn't know what to say.

Naruto just kept grumbling all the way till he reached his apartment.

He opened his door only to hear some giggling much to his confusion, he put the stuffs and went to the kitchen to see Hinata and Haku were talking animatedly and giggling to themselves as if they were best friends. Hearing the sound both girls looked back to see the blond staring at them.

"Did you bring the food?" Haku asked.

Naruto looked at her, "How long was I out?"

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**Next Day**

"Come on don't tell me you are still grumpy about yesterday." Haku said with a fake apologetic tone.

Naruto looked at her with narrowed eyes and just grumbled some incoherent words. Right now they were at training ground fifteen waiting for their sensei. But the reason Naruto was _very_ pissed because yesterday after he reached home Hinata just talked to him for a few moment and went back to her place, she did say that she would come to train with them today but he knew something happened between her and Haku but when he asked all she said was that they had some girl talk that's all.

Haku smirked a bit. Yesterday after waking Hinata up with the help of the smelling salt, they did have a girl to girl talk but Naruto didn't need to know the subject of their discussion.

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Flashback

"_So, let me get this straight; you don't want to ask Naruto-kun out because you are afraid he might reject you because you think he likes this other girl named Sakura." Haku summarized what they talked about for the last ten minutes, after they got the fact straight that Haku saw Naruto as a brother they got on well together._

"_Haku-san, I li-liked him for long time but just recently he seemed to care for me as a really good friend and I know it may cross the line sometime in the future but I don't w-want to push it for now." Hinata replied dejectedly._

"_The way he was feeling you up told me otherwise." Haku thought to herself, "You know he cares for you a lot right?" Seeing Hinata nodding her head slightly, Haku continued, "So why don't you make sure he is the one to ask you out first?" Haku grinned._

_Hinata snapped her head towards her, "W-What? H-How?" _

_Haku laughed, "All you got to do is….."_

Flashback Ends

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They decided that Hinata would play 'hard-to-get' with Naruto until he cracks and knowing him he would just flatly ask her out. Haku looked at Naruto who was torturing a leaf with a kunai, "_By the looks of it I will be surprise if he can survive this till the end of the week_." Haku thought to herself.

After five minutes later, Yamato came who just looked questionably at Naruto then at Haku who just shrugged. Yamato coughed to get Naruto's attention which did. "Now once again, welcome to 'The Backup Team' Haku. Usually we as a genin team tend to do D rank missions and sometimes C rank mission but after the unfortunate mishap on our last C rank mission," Haku blushed slightly, "Sandaime-sama thought that we could use a break to take a rest as well as to work on our team formation." Hearing that Naruto's mood brightened a bit.

"So it is for the best if we should start early; but first of all Haku, you need to follow some precautions for your own safety if I must say." Haku was confused but nodded her head anyway. "First you can't use your bloodline for the time being like Zabuza said, at least not out in the open; don't worry it is not like in Kiri; just some safety measures against some dangerous people." Haku released a breath of relief. "For now you have to rely on your water release which I will supervise to make it stronger and unless it is an emergency situation do not use your bloodline or your needles so that no one can trace them back to the masked nin you used to be. If you want to train your ice release tell me beforehand so we could go to more _secluded _place for that." Yamato explained.

"Ya, welcome to one of the most awesome team ever." Naruto said while feeling a bit better, moping the floor around wouldn't do any good for him, he would just try to spend more time with her now that he had a break. Seeing Haku didn't take him seriously, he pouted, "Really, we are an awesome team. Yamato-sensei can I tell her?" Yamato laughed a bit and nodded, "Haku-nee, Yamato sensei got wood release bloodline, you got ice release bloodline and last but not least I got the best, the storm release." Haku's eye became as wide as a dinner plate, every one of her team had a bloodline and all of those were rare elemental ones as well.

"Uhh, that reminds me; here Naruto your swords. I bought new ones because the old ones are beyond repairing, please try to take care of these." Yamato rubbed his forehead.

"Hey it is not my fault that my jutsu is awesome." Naruto snorted.

"Wait when did your swords broke?" Haku asked confusedly.

"Oh that, it was when I used the jutsu to beat your horror mirror." Naruto said idly.

"What was that anyway?" Haku remembered that jutsu too well but she didn't quite get what the jutsu was.

"Simple actually, I combined my kenjutsu technique with storm release; I pump my swords with lightning chakra and then at the last moment I use a kenjutsu technique and release a water wave which while passing through my lightning charged swords combines with the lightning and creates a dense thunder based energy beam. Cool, isn't it?" Naruto explained gleefully.

"I would say it is a high A rank jutsu with _lots _of drawbacks." Yamato gave his opinion as well.

"Hey not my fault, if the swords were high quality I can just pump up lightning chakra fast instead of doing it slowly so the swords don't explode in my face. And you know I can throw that jutsu few times within a short span of time." Naruto pouted. Yamato just waved him off.

"Wow, it really is an amazing jutsu. No wonder it beat my demonic mirror because it was only high B rank." Haku stated her opinion.

"Enough with the small talks for now guys, we should start training fast. We got a break for one week and each day of the week I will come and train you guys till noon or afternoon, what are you going to do after that is all up to you but if you need my help after the timeline feel free to ask me." Both of his genin nodded, he smiled at that, "Ok, for now Naruto you know what you have to do?"

"Yes I learned that this lightning exercise is not about getting more experience, it is more about concentration so I will do it myself rather than using the clones." Yamato smirked hearing that. "But I will make some clones so that they can do the first level of water release exercise."

Yamato nodded, "OK I will make one shadow clone that will go with you. You need to be in a quiet place to concentrate on your exercise. Rest of your clones will follow me and Haku, both of us will be training near the waterfall moreover I need to tell Haku about our codes and team tactics. And also," looking at Haku he continued, "I will need to evaluate your skills myself to see where you stand."

"Hai sensei." Haku replied with a serious tone as well. Zabuza gave her another chance and she wouldn't let him down.

"All right let's begin."

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**Few Hours Later**

The time to keep the light going increased by two minutes, so now for full seven minutes Naruto can balance his lightning chakra perfectly. He smirked seeing his own accomplishment and went back to meet his other teammates with Yamato's clone. His smirk widened when he saw Hinata was there and by the looks of it she just arrived.

"Hey Hinata-chan, how are you doing?" Naruto practically flew through the training ground and came close to Hinata.

Hinata blushed seeing Naruto's eagerness to meet her, "H-Hello Naruto-kun, I am doing fine. You look tired."

A bulb just lit above Naruto's head, "Ya I kinda am, so want to come and grab lunch together?"

"Don't worry about that," Haku came smirking, when she saw both of them she asked Yamato if they could take a break for now, "I made lunch for today, we can all share, right Yamato-sensei?" Yamato not getting what was going on replied back, "Ya sure we all can have lunch here." Naruto hit the ground face first. Seeing that Haku's smirk widened and Hinata giggled inwardly.

Yamato just looked at all of them confusedly, "Did I miss something?"

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**Done, I am trying to add a bit of comedy to make the story interesting, the next chapter I will try to add NaruHina fluffy moments but not sure if I can pull it through properly.**

**Till next time guys.**


	11. Chapter 11: Chasing after the moon

**Hello there everyone, firstly thanks for all the support for the story, it is really inspiring**

**I tried to put some humor in this chapter, hope you like it.**

******Also I would like to mention that very soon I will start working on revising the first chapters to make them more enjoyable and error-free, I won't change the main contain but I could use some help with the revision, while reading if anything particular stands out (ex: grammar, choice of words, style-of-writing anything) just pm me or leave a comment about it. I would appreciate the help. ******

_**Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto.**_

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_Fire everywhere, burning everything._

_I hear people screaming not for help but for their loved ones to abandon them._

_And yet their beloveds are ignoring their pleas and trying to save them; _

_While dying with them._

_No one is going to be spared, not the kids, not the mothers or the olds._

_It is a genocide._

_I see one person came to me running and telling me something._

_What is he saying?_

I opened my eyes, "Same dream, huh?"

I got up and took the object of my salvation.

"Three more years." I whispered to no one.

There are lots of things that needed to be done.

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**Haku's PoV**

After that fateful day I thought my life was over, I lived on the streets while trying to survive by any way I could. I thought I would meet my end like a street animal but it all changed when I took his hand, even though he told me that he viewed me nothing but a 'weapon' I was able to see through his mask, he treated me more than that. And when i thought my life wouldn't get any better he gave me another chance to live my life like a normal Shinobi. I would never forget his kindness nor would I hesitate to return the favor when the time would call.

My new home in Konoha is great, I am in a, how should I put it, 'super awesome' team. I am paired with Naruto who acts like a reckless kid wanting to be pampered and praised; I wonder if this is how it feels to have an energetic younger brother. We are going along just fine and our sensei is great but the best part is both of them have bloodline, not because of the power but because of the fact that I may be able to bond with them in some way that I couldn't do it with my foster father. But according to Yamato-sensei I should not reveal my bloodline for the time being, but to tell the truth this current condition is more favorable to me. I always relied heavily on my ice release so now I can start fresh and while at it I may be able to pick up some new areas that I am good at. But for the past few days, Yamato-sensei is training me on my water release, even though I am good at it; everyone knows there is always room for improvement.

The last few days of the break, Naruto and I constantly train from morning till afternoon sometimes stretching the time to evening, Hinata joins us most of the time at late noon. Seriously Naruto should just ask out the poor girl. Well now that she is playing 'hard to get' game like I suggested, Naruto is becoming more reckless and restless, serves him right. He shouldn't take her kindness and caring for granted. Recently he introduced me to his other friends and his classmates; they all seem to be good people, most of them at least. Ino and Sakura are more like fan girls than kunoichi; they should act more like Tenten and Hinata who take their profession quite seriously. Lee is, how to put it, too energetic whereas Shino, Shikamaru and Chouji could use some of his spirit, but from what I can tell that if Shikamaru really wants he can give me a run for my money, that boy is too observant. I don't need to know Kiba for too long cause from the way I see he is a pervert and the look he gives to Hinata sometimes and the one he receives from Naruto told me that he won't live long enough unless he changes his attitude. Sai, Neji and Sasuke does not seem good hearted people but I can feel that they have all suffered in their early childhood which twisted their thoughts and ideals, but I should be a bit more wary of the sharingan-wielder as he seemed to observe me rather closely, let's just hope it is not for what I think it is.

But all in all I think I can get use to this new life.

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**Naruto's PoV**

When was the last time I came here physically? Long time maybe but had to admit, the scenery in my mindscape looked better than the real place. Not that I didn't like the clear sky, on the contrary from time to time the cloudless night sky was better than a stormy one. "Hey Raiju-san, can you give me some advice?"

"**If it is about your love life, you have to figure that out by yourself, brat?**" Raiju chuckled lightly.

I smiled hearing that but it was a sad one. There was one thing I usually did when I had enough time that was to send my clones around the village and henged themselves to blend into the crowd and dug up the latest gossips or rumors to keep up with what was going on, but now i wished i hadn't done that. Recently what my clones learned was the next chunin exam would be held in Konoha which was only few months away. But what really caught my attention was that Team eight did their first C rank mission where they had to escort a merchant back to the capital but when they reached there some problems occurred and team eight stepped in, normally it would be a good thing but after the incident Hinata caught some noble's good grace and the words of that reached the village. Now she was truly treated as 'The Princess of Konoha'. Now that was not the worst part, I even heard there were lots of requests to ask for permission to court her officially and all of them were from high places. And lately for some reason it felt like if I wouldn't act fast she would just slip away. When did it happen I don't know, but what I did know that I had fallen for her and it was not like Sakura, it was not just a simple crush. I looked at the moon; it resembled her so much that it was frightening, so close yet so far.

"I don't know, maybe I am scared. Honestly saying I know what I should do but for some reason I can't take the next step. She is like a princess, Raiju-san and I am…."

"**A warrior with an unbreakable will and a fearless spirit who is blessed by the mighty Raijin himself and contains two powerful beings inside him, that's who you are Naruto; someone who doesn't take **_**shit**_** from anyone and follows his **_**heart**_**." **Raiju bellowed in a thunderous voice.

I was taken aback; my mind was shaken to it's core by the sheer power of Raiju's voice. I chuckled and slowly it turned out to a full blown laughter. Really what was I thinking, I knew I was way out of her league but that didn't mean it would stop me, whenever anything like that mattered to me in any way. I stood up and looked at the clear cloudless sky, the moon was shining in its all glory and somehow I felt courage build up in myself.

"Watch out my Tsukihime I am going to win your heart and I ain't backing down from that no matter what. BELIEVE IT!" I shouted loudly declaring my determination to the moon.

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**Next Day**

Naruto stopped doing his lightning element training from few days, with his troubled mind it was hard to concentrate his lightning chakra, so for now he was fully concentrating on his water elemental training and so far it was going good but rather slowly. Right now he and Haku were doing light spar, even though Haku had more experience but as usual Naruto was cornering her with his bottomless stamina.

"Stop, that's enough." Yamato ordered his students. Every once in a while he re-evaluated his students to make sure they know their weakness and strength and train accordingly.

"Haku, you need to build up your stamina; you are fast and precise but the longer the fight goes on your performance diminishes faster than I thought. For now keep on training on physical exercises to fight longer. Your water release is better than I thought so stick to taijutsu training." Yamato suggested, seeing Haku acknowledging that he moved to Naruto.

"Now as for you Naruto, I don't know what is wrong but you are not your usual self. If something is bothering you, I am willing to listen." Yamato offered, something was definitely wrong but the question was what.

"Nah, don't worry sensei. I will take care of it myself." Naruto said with a cheeky grin but his nervous eyes didn't fool Yamato. But knowing the kid, he knew it was better to let him solve his troubles by himself. "Ok, if that's the case I will hold onto your training report for now and tell you when you are feeling better. Guess this is the end for today's training, see you all." With that Yamato left via shunshin.

"Now all I have to do is to wait." Naruto thought to himself, every day Hinata would come to train with them after doing missions or rather chores with her team. And good thing her sensei was ok with that for now. Naruto sighed and sat down leaning on a tree.

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Few Hours Later

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Hinata and Haku were training together on their taijutsu, for Hinata she was using gentle fist but more flexible way and she wasn't using her chakra, just simple taijutsu to increase the power of the strikes as well as to increase her battle stamina. And the same could be said for Haku. Naruto told them that he was fine training alone but in truth he was just waiting for Hinata to finish her training. And seeing that she was done, he rushed to her.

"Yo Hinata-chan, you did great." Naruto smiled forcedly, he was never been so nervous in his life.

"Thank you Naruto-kun." Hinata smiled brightly but her eyes showed concern for him, he knew he can't hide against those all-seeing beautiful eyes.

"A-Are you free t-tomorrow, Hinata-chan?" Naruto cursed himself for his blunder.

Hinata looked at her crush confusedly, he was probably going to ask her to train as usual but why was he nervous, "Yes I am Naruto-kun, is it about training?"

"N-No, not training. I was w-wondering if you would l-like to I mean if you are free we can h-hang out together." Naruto almost bit his tongue.

Hinata just tilted her head cutely, Haku was seeing all these from a bit far away, and she was having hard time to contain her laughter; how ironic it was that the confident boy was now a stuttering mess and asking the girl for a date while the shy girl was being oblivious to it. _"Yup too damn funny."_

"Like usual right, Naruto-kun?" Hinata implored, she had no clue what was going on; how could she, every time Naruto would ask the same way to train with her or just to grab lunch.

" Imeanwillyougooutwithmeeeeh." Naruto spoke so fast that he bit his tongue.

"Huh?" Hinata asked, Haku thought it was best if she interfered otherwise the conversation would go nowhere. "Hinata-chan, Naruto-kun was asking if he could take you out on a date. Isn't that right Naruto-kun?" Haku said sweetly but her smirk was obvious, Naruto just glared at her but looked at Hinata and nodded.

"Sure Naruto-kun." Hinata said smiling but with her eyes closed.

"OH YEEES! TOMORROW AT NINE, MEET YOU AT ICHIRAKU'S." with that Naruto bolted, he had lots of planning to do.

Haku laughed a bit and mentally praised herself. Naruto didn't last the week just like she thought. Well, guess the 'hard to get' plan was successful.

"See Hinata-chan, I told you he would be the first one to come at you if you follow the strategy. So girl, what is your plan?" Haku asked Hinata cheerfully but didn't receive any reply. She looked at Hinata to see she was still standing and smiling while making no motion of moving at all. "Hinata-chan," Haku went close to see what was wrong, "Hinata what's wrong? Why…OH SHIT! HINATA! SHE ISN'T BREATHING!..."

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**Next Morning**

It was seven in the morning,

Naruto checked, double-checked, triple-checked the list of what he needed to do to make sure he didn't mess up the chance he finally got. Last night he went to bed early, well he had to make a shadow clone to knock himself out cause he couldn't sleep being so nervous. But before that he made few shadow clones and for some time they read few great dating books 'Dating Guide for Noobs', 'How to woo your girlfriend', 'Icha Icha series: Gotta catch'em all' and 'Icha Icha series: Capturing a young maiden's heart'. Now packed with all the wonderful and dirty….*cough* useful knowledge he knew what he had to do but despite that he couldn't help but be nervous. Suddenly few clones came in and mock-saluted him.

"Alright, place for date – check, gifts – check, flowers – check, and self-dress up" looks at himself, "check I guess. Ok guys you know what you have to do and do it fast and appropriately." He ordered his clones.

"Ready or not here I come, my Tsukihime."

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_For the first date, go to the meeting place an hour early_

So taking the advice from the books he reached Ichiraku's place at eight sharp. He was nervous to boot and why wouldn't he be? He asked the 'Princess of Konoha' to a date and he knew no matter how much he screwed up, Hinata wouldn't get mad. "What if..." Naruto's thought process stopped when he saw Hinata coming and he didn't even had to wait more than ten minutes.

Hinata was wearing a short sleeve amethyst shirt and the top part was open enough to show her gifts from her mother but only the idea of them but not enough to broadcast them. She was wearing a medium length white skirt that stopped at her knees with blue flowers decorating the skirt. The skirt itself was also slit on two sides of her legs all the way up to just before hitting her thighs showing her thin pair of light blue shorts which she wore underneath. The skirts revealed some of her legs while highlighting her curves showing she had the figure that most girls would die for to have.

Naruto was stunned, he knew he had to greet and compliment her but his brain took the perfect time to shut down itself. Hinata giggled seeing Naruto's expression as his face said it all of what he was thinking about her, she blushed prettily when she saw that with a wide mouth and a crimson face, Naruto was checking her out rather openly. But she got to admit Naruto was looking quite good himself as he was wearing a long sleeve red shirt with hat the ends of each sleeve and at the bottom of the shirt was black flames, the shirt itself was buttoned up but few were unbuttoned from the top down showing Naruto's net shirt and revealing his firm chest with lean muscle. His pants were black with red flames at the top of the pants and at the bottoms of each pants leg. Both his pants and shirt were light enough and thin enough to not be skin tight but also to allow mobility.

"Good morning, Na-Naruto-kun; you are looking great today." Hinata said meekly.

"Ah, u-umm," Naruto shouted in his mind, _"Brain! WORK!"_ "You looking hot too and good morning."

"_FUUUUUUCK!" _Naruto wanted to bang his head meanwhile Hinata was doing her best not to laugh, to her it was so cute of Naruto, to see that she could do so much to ever so confident Naruto was a boost to her self-confidence. Even Haku sent a letter in the early morning saying what Naruto did last night; she didn't say anything about the plan itself only his nervous breakdown. _"I can still manage to save this date_." Naruto panicky thought.

_Compliment the girl's looks – messed up, moving on_

Naruto snapped his finger and suddenly Hinata found herself surrounded by Naruto's shadow clones but the amazing part was all of them were kneeling while holding up various kinds of flowers, from lavender lisianthus to lavender roses; she even spotted some beautiful red hibiscus as well.

From bystanders' point of view that was one of the best romantic scenes they had seen, some even 'awwed' at them forgetting who was doing the deed.

Hinata blushed fiercely, "Th-thank you, Na-Naruto-kun. T-They are beautiful." Naruto took one lavender rose and put it in Hinata's hair, in his mind he was trying to remember what that particular flower symbolized but nothing came out;

"_Damn, what to do? AHH! Maybe that part from 'Icha Icha series: Gotta catch'em all' will work.",_ "Don't worry Hina-hime, they don't even hold a candle against your beauty." Naruto said cheekily while winking at her. Hinata had to do her best not to faint but her blush increased fiercely and she had to look down to avoid Naruto's intensive gaze.

_Giver her flowers of her liking and be passionate about it. Pulled out perfectly_

For the place of the date, it was quite hard to find a decent one as most of the restaurants would be harsh to him at least, which would most likely ruin the date, that's where 'Icha Icha series: Capture a young maiden's heart' helped him out by telling him that sometimes having an outside picnic for a date could replace the most exquisite restaurants if one knew where to have the picnic.

And luckily for him he knew the perfect place. Their previous academy had a private training ground, a beautiful field with waterfall and it was the best place for taking Hinata there. Because from what she told him before that she really liked the place when she was a student, what he didn't know was that she liked the place because Naruto used to train there most of the time. But the problem was once in every few weeks one class would go and train there, being supervised by a teacher and ominously for him their date collided.

But lady luck smiled at him as this time the supervising teacher was Iruka although Iruka didn't wanted to give him the field without a good reason so he had to resort to make a deal with the devil, who gladly _took care_ of the problem.

Now he had the beautiful training field all to himself.

"Open your eyes, Hinata-chan." Hinata opened her eyes only to get shocked to see the amazing place, the training ground was filled with different kinds of purple to blue flowers and in the middle there was a wooden table with bench which was also nicely decorated, beside it stood another Naruto who wore a pure white shirt with loose sleeves, closed on the right shoulder, with a fastener running down the right part of the chest, matching pants, with a black apron tied around his waist and black shinobi sandals. (Neji's outfit from Shippuden) Hinata pinched herself to see if she was dreaming or not because the place looks exactly like one of her dreams.

"Come on, Hinata chan; let's enjoy ourselves."

_For eating take her to a beautiful place – Mission accomplished_

For Hinata it was one of the best moment in her life, Naruto was treating her with utmost care and respect. Although it was quite funny to watch him try to act poetic one moment and next he would act very passionate. But the best parts were the times when he was making mistakes, even if it was a small one he was acting as if it was the end of Konoha.

Especially when the waiter-Naruto would stumble with words as he was trying his best to mimic the high-class restaurant's waiters, the real Naruto would glare daggers at him,

"_Cute!_" All these moments helped her to make up her mind, if Naruto asks her to be his girlfriend at the end of the date she would gladly accept, if she didn't faint first. She was well aware of her newfound status in the village and all the proposals she was getting but she could care less about any of those. _"My life, my choice."_ she thought with determination.

After the wonderful lunch, they went around Konoha to relax and have fun. Hinata let Naruto take her wherever he wanted after seeing his determined look. They went to a dancing hall to dance there only to find out that Hinata was dancing almost like a professional dancer while Naruto was dancing like he had a cockroach under his shirt.

_Take her to dancing and show how good you are – Fucked up_

After that, Naruto took Hinata to his favorite place, top of the Hokage monument. She enjoyed it very much, at least that's what her expression felt like to Naruto.

"Hinata-chan, can you close your eyes." Hinata smiled and did as told; she felt something was being put around her neck, "Open them." Hinata opened to see a gorgeous and expensive looking sliver colored necklace with Uzumaki's symbol on it. It was round and was quite well-crafted and it looked like it was one of a kind, also there were some symbols behind it but it was very faint.

"Naruto-kun, what is this?" Hinata asked in a very surprised voice.

"I got it in my last mission, after I researched a bit, i found out that it belonged to the Uzumaki clan, I didn't find much but I found something interesting; the back symbol indicates protection so I want you to have it." Naruto replied sincerely. Hinata smiled genuinely and mustered up all her courage to do one thing she thought she could never do so easily. She kissed Naruto on the cheek. Naruto's brain gloriously shut down once again.

_Take her to a nice place and give her a beautiful gift – SCORE!_

Last on the list was to walk her home, he checked it making sure Hinata didn't see that and started walking with her, but unbeknownst to him, Hinata activated her Byakugan at one point and had hard time holding in her giggle when she saw what Naruto had with him,

'A checklist to have a perfect date'.

"_So cute!" _ Hinata giggled to herself.

But the last nerve-wrecking hardest part was coming. "This is it, do or die." Naruto was shaking his head while chanting it out aloud without knowing, Hinata smiled softly hearing his chanting, who knew Naruto would be more nervous than her.

"Hinata-chan, I hope you enjoyed the date." Naruto asked hopefully.

"Yes I did, it was one of the best day of my life." Hinata smiled warmly while directly looking at her crush's eyes, today was really a great day for boosting her self-confidence.

"_GO FOR IT, SPILL IT."_

"Hinata-chan, I am not good with beating around the subject, we both know I am not that smart. So I will ask you directly," Naruto sharply took a long breath, "Will you be my girlfriend?"

"Yes, yes I will." Hinata answered while small tears were forming in her eyes.

"*sigh* I understand that you don't want to, so can we st…..WAIT WHAT?" Naruto was speaking in a dejected voice until Hinata's word finally registered into his mind.

"You want to be my girlfriend." Hinata nodded happily, "As in like couple, lover that kind of girlfriend." Hinata blushed heavily but she still smiled and nodded once again.

One second

Two second

Three second

Four second

Five Second

Naruto jumped around and started dancing like a drunken monkey, he stopped only to hug Hinata and started spinning her around, Hinata's laughter could be heard from far away.

"_Best day ever." _Both of them thought happily to themselves.

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**OMAKE (First time)**

DEAL WITH THE DEVIL

"Damn it Iruka-sensei, why couldn't you give me the damn field just for tomorrow? I need it more than those pesky brats. Gaah! Don't blame me for this sensei; you are the one who bought this upon yourself." Naruto grumbled out while standing behind _the_ door.

"No going back." Steeling his resolve he knocked the door.

The door opened after a while, "Well, well. Look who we have here, the one and only king of prankster, so what are you doing here brat?"

"I need your help and I know you will like it." With that Naruto sealed the deal with the demon.

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After an hour

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Iruka came out from the shower but a subtle noise warned him that he was not alone; he took out a hidden kunai under the carpet and went to his bedroom to see an anbu was doing something in his bed. But he couldn't see what he was doing nor his mask as his back was facing him.

"Who are you? And what are you doing here?" Before Iruka could do or say anything anymore the person went 'poof' revealing that he was nothing but a shadow clone, but something in his bed caught his eye, a scroll? He went to check it but the moment he picked it up it transformed and to his horror it was a pink panty.

"Ho ho ho, caught red-handed, ey Iruka-chan." a cheerful voice called him out from behind.

Iruka mechanically looked back slowly to see a very, _very _happy Anko standing there, "All these times you were rejecting my advances and here you are now stealing my panties; hmm, I wonder why? I hope you are prepared for a little _punishment_." Anko said licking her lips while eyeing Iruka hungrily. Iruka started to think faster than a Nara could, he was in his bedroom with wearing only a towel while holding Anko's panty and the said girl was giving off a _very _bad predatory kind of vibe, after analyzing the situation, in less than a minute he came up with hundreds of ways to get out from this mess although none of them could reassure his safety heck he would be lucky if he could pull even one of them properly, he started to back down slowly.

"Anko-san, please listen to me. This isn't what it looks like, I was framed. There was…why are you undressing!...Listen damn it! WAIT! PUT THAT BACK ON!...STOP PULLING MY TOWEL!...BAD ANKO! BAD ANKO!...WAIT….HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP!"

A bit far away from the suspected crime scene, our hero was standing with a sad face.

"I am sorry Iruka-sensei, I will never forget your heroic sacrifice but know this, when I become the Hokage I will put your name on the Hero's memorial stone. You shall not be forgotten…..…Ah who am I kidding, he is going to thank me later anyway."

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**Done, hope you guys enjoyed this chapter.**

_****Special Thanks to:**_**Toshiro of the Eternal Dream**** for helping me with this chapter (especially with the dating cloths), I really appreciated it.****

**Till next time guys.**


	12. Chapter 12 : Hunt for a treasure

**What's up everyone, it is very flattering to know that you guys really liked the last chapter, after reading the reviews I decided that I will try to put Omake every now and then if I have time.**

**Now onto the story**

_**Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto.**_

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"Hyoton: Frozen needles of death."

"Dense Shadow clone jutsu."

Two shadow clones appeared in front of the hundred charging frozen needles just in time for Naruto to escape Haku's range.

"_Damn almost had her in the close range fight. She is getting better at ice style, and here she said she does not want to train on ice style that much."_ Naruto thought while he jumped back further.

"_If Naruto-kun wants to finish this fight he has to come closer, and that's when I will beat him."_ Haku thought while readying more needles.

"Time to go all out." Naruto shouted, "Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu." Hundreds of clone came out in the clearing and all charged towards Haku. Seeing the waves of clones coming at her, she started making the hand signs while jumping back; she waited a bit and smiled,

"_All in place." _

Pumping up her chakra, she smirked, "Hyoton: Certain kill ice spears."

Suddenly lots of giant ice spikes came from underneath and destroyed a good amount of clones. Haku release a breath of relief but it was short lived when she heard,

"Uzumaki Style: Flash Clone Step." To her shock Naruto was now holding his blade to her neck.

"Crafty move, isn't it Haku-nee?"

"Not crafty enough." The moment she said that the part of the blade that was touching her skin froze and before he could do anything Haku moved closer and _exploded _into snow parts which fell fully on Naruto half-freezing him.

"W-Wha….i-i-is…t-t-this?" Naruto said with chattering teeth.

"Hyoton: Ice clone and Hyoton: Showering snow. The last one me and Yamato sensei came up together to capture a weakened enemy by freezing them albeit not completely." Haku replied calmly while coming out from behind a tree. She moved in closer to Naruto but that sealed her fate,

"Storm Release: Laser Circus." One energy beam came and struck in front of Haku, seeing the aftereffect of the attack Yamato came and shouted, "Stop, it's over. Naruto wins."

Haku just shook her head, if that attack hit her she would be on her way to hospital. And as usual Naruto started cheering for his own victory, "Yahoo! That makes two wins and one loss."

"Could have won if I knew you mastered that move." Haku pouted.

"Ya but you said you are not gonna train on ice release that much, but all I can see you are using new ice release jutsu every time." Naruto said accusingly.

Yamato was pleased to see their progress. After last week's break they started their usual D rank mission but they did them solo. After that they would do their training although sometimes they had all-out sparring. And every spar each of them would come up with different tactics to outdo other.

Naruto knew from his first win that if he could bring Haku into close range, the fight was his but because he let the first win got to his head he lost the second one but the third one was the most interesting. He brought Haku into a close range fight but when things started looking bad for Haku she used frozen needle jutsu to put some distance between them, ice version of her water needle. Moving into safe place Naruto used shadow clone army but was wiped out by the same move that beat him last time but interesting thing was Naruto's clone acted as a line from his place to Haku and he used kawarimi on them simultaneously to move closer to Haku really fast and in a zigzag way. Although this time Haku caught him off-guard with two of her new Hyoton moves but the one she caught was a shadow clone, even Yamato didn't see when Naruto switched with the clone.

"Nice fight you guys, the way you fight and think ahead makes me believe that you are already on chunin level _but _only in combat, there is more you need to learn." Yamato lightened the mood, and then he asked Naruto, "When did you switch with the clone Naruto? Even I didn't see that."

Naruto smiled brightly, "I didn't switch because from the beginning I wasn't the one who went in with _clone step,_ it was another dense clone." Yamato just laughed, most unpredictable ninja indeed.

"What is a dense clone, Naruto-kun?" Haku asked.

"It is one of my own original moves, an improvised version of Shadow clone. I pump up Shadow clone with lots of chakra. If I stabilize the chakra it is a dense version that can withstand a few good solid hits but will dispel automatically after some uncertain amount of time. And if I don't stabilize the chakra it will become an explosion version which will do you know what." Naruto laughed.

"Well guess you guys are ready for another C rank mission." Yamato smiled knowing they had enough team training; the reaction was a cheering Naruto and a smiling Haku.

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**Next Day Hokage Tower**

"So you think they are ready for another joint C rank mission?" Hiruzen inquired.

"Yes, their team work and performance were more than satisfactory." Yamato eagerly replied back.

"Ok, we have one rookie team that will do a C rank mission. They were already briefed but I will give you the mission parameter. Check with their team, I think they said they will go to the BBQ place to meet with the client." Hiruzen eyed Naruto, he wondered if he would be able to see him smile in front of him again.

"Will do; alright team, move out." Yamato ordered.

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BBQ place

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"Hello Kurenai san." Yamato politely greeted their partnered team.

"_Hell Ya!"_ Naruto jumped with joy inwardly but didn't show anything outside except grinning wildly.

"Guess you guys will be our partner in this mission. Nice knowing we have a good _backup_." Kurenai laughed, the declaration had different reaction from the genins, Naruto's face-splitting grin told everything, Haku was glad that her first official C rank mission with someone she knew, Kiba looked pissed for some reason, Hinata was ecstatic that her second C rank mission would be with her boyfriend and Shino was, being Shino.

"So, where is the client?" Yamato asked.

"He should be here any minute; ah, there he is." Kurenai pointed at an old man.

Everyone looked to see an old man came there walking with a cane; he was wearing a silver shirt, with a light black colored robe over the top of it covering slightly below from his knee, to just over his left shoulder. The robe concealed his left side of the upper body but from the outline anyone can see he was missing his left hand.

"Hello everyone, I am guessing you are my treasure retrieval team." The old man joked.

"_Treasure?!"_ was the only thought that went around all the genins' heads.

"Everyone meet Karashi, he is the client for this mission and as he just said we are to retrieve his belonging which was recently stolen by bandits." Kurenai informed everyone.

"So sensei we are going to look for some treasure?" Kiba asked enthusiastically.

"I said _my_ treasure so I am not sure that the object would hold same value to you guys. But it is very important to me." Karashi corrected Kiba.

"Like Karashi said, it is an important object to him so we have to track down the bandits and make sure that he gets his _treasure_ back to him safely. " Kurenai summarized their mission.

"Ok guys, for now go and pack your stuffs; we will be leaving early in the morning." Yamato ordered everyone.

"Yo Hinata, want to….." Before Kiba could even finish out of nowhere a cat came and hissed at Akamaru after which it bolted leaving the dog hot on its tail, giving Kiba no other choice but to follow after them.

"Now with the nuisance being taken care of, Hina-chan let me walk you to your house." Naruto asked his girlfriend politely.

Hinata blushed hotly, she requested Naruto to keep their relationship secret for now because she was afraid that if her clan found out they might cause troubles for Naruto. Although Naruto reluctantly agreed, his behavior showed otherwise. He would openly _try_ to flirt with her which she found cute, would give her flowers and presents occasionally that showed his sweet side and would lash out at anyone who would try to approach at her romantically which worried her.

"_Well, I guess that's what makes him very special."_ Hinata squeaked inwardly.

Only four people knows of their relationship, three being told by them, Haku, Yamato and Kurenai while the last one cause of his observant eyes, Hiashi. For Hiashi, he knew of his daughter's crush and so few months back when they started training together he had a feeling that things might escalate in near future but he didn't wanted it to be this soon, for now he would tolerate their relationship as this was having a huge positive impact on Hinata's life, both physically and mentally.

"_That boy has to have a man to man talk with me sometime soon."_ That was the only thought that went through Hiashi's head when he learned about their relationship.

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With Naruto

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"Hinata-chan, how is your gentle fist project going?" Naruto asked Hinata remembering her wish to create her own style.

"Not that good, I combined some of the snake style movements to make mine more flexible but I feel like it is not enough." Hinata said dejectedly, Anko did show her some of the basic snake styles but she couldn't combine everything with gentle fist. Because both style being so different from one another.

"Ya about that, Hinata-chan; here take this." Naruto gave her a scroll, "I found it at Wave as well, first I thought it was a taijutsu scroll after taking a peek but it is not. It is for some kind of dance moves I think, fan or cloth dance or something like that. I thought it might help you." Naruto explained sheepishly.

"Thank you Naruto-kun." Hinata smiled, taking the scroll she opened it to take a look. She might not be a professional dancer though she was taught basic dancing. But she really enjoyed dancing and she could tell from looking at some moves that this was not a normal regular kind of dancing, the dance moves needed perfect balance while for the successive execution one had to be a far too flexible. She knew that this was what she needed. Looking around to see if the coast was clear, than to express her thanks, she kissed Naruto on the cheek. Naruto went rigid for a while, then start dancing like a monkey.

"_SCORE!"_

"_Cute!" _

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**Next Day, In the Morning**

Naruto was on cloud nine, why? He and Hinata decided to come early to have some alone time together, after Hinata kissed him, on the cheeks, and hugged him for some time to show that how much she appreciated his latest present, she told him that that scroll had what she needed to improve her gentle fist further.

The scroll was about an exotic kind of dancing that was deemed to be lost, dance of the mermaids. Normally people would ask how some dancing moves could be useful to an assault fighting style; well, Naruto did ask Hinata; she explained that those dancing moves required one to be perfectly flexible and also gave some training tips of how to increase one's flexibility. Higher level of the dancing moves even needed some chakra control to have proper balance between speed and flexibility. She already formed some moves combining gentle fist, water manipulation, snake style and dance of the mermaid. All that was left was to create and master them. And the best part was that it had been only one day since she got the scroll and she already got so many ideas. She just couldn't wait to start on them. So it was perfectly sensible for her to show Naruto just how much she cherished it, well she did her best considering her shyness but by the looks of it Naruto _enjoyed_ it very much.

"_Note to self, bring in more ninja scrolls as a present." _Naruto mentally made a note about it.

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After a while

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Haku and Yamato came first and was followed by the rest of the group.

"So guys, here are the picture of the object," Yamato handed pictures to all the genins.

"It is a silver colored metal box with a star symbol engraved on the top. As far we know the bandits that raided the place was last seen around Kinzan town, so our first stop is that place and from there we have to track down the bandits and retrieve the item, clear?" Kurenai summarized their mission.

Everyone nodded.

"Well then, let's move out." Yamato ordered.

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**Kinzan Town**

Luckily for them no problems occurred on their journey to the town. So they reached there after few hours.

"All right guys, everyone will be split into groups and will be given assignments." Yamato told the teams.

"Shino and Kiba will go and recon the area for any bandits but DO NOT engage them if you find any. Haku and I will go talk to the chief of this town, and Yamato will be looking for a hotel while Naruto and Hinata will be gathering information from inside the village. We will be meeting here in the town center." Kurenai laid out the formation.

The reactions were the same as expected but before any could cheer or voice their opinion Yamato butted in, "No time to disagree guys, you heard the lady, move out and by the way, I will be leaving a shadow clone here so if you need anything ask the clone. Now go." Yamato said leaving no room for any arguments.

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With Hinata and Naruto

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"So we have to gather information inside the village?" Naruto asked while grinning mischievously which was never a good sign, Hinata nodded but she knew something was coming.

"You know Hinata-chan we can rest and chill for a while before we start." Naruto said cheekily making Hinata blush.

"Naruto-kun, we are on a mi-mission; concentrate." Hinata chided.

"Who said we are gonna slack off," Naruto's grin increased while he made his favorite sigh, "Shadow clone jutsu." Ten clones popped in front of them,

"Spy formation." Immediately the clones henged themselves into normal civilian of different ages,

"Scatter!" Naruto howled making all the clones dashing off inside the village. Hinata was stunned seeing this.

"They will do the investigation for a while," Naruto started to scratch the back of his head while his cheeks sported a soft blush, "You know I don't think you thanked me enough for the present I gave you this morning."

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With Kurenai and Haku

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"Are you sure about this?" Kurenai asked while rubbing her head.

"Yes, but to their defense they didn't know about this." Haku replied back.

"Why can't I get a simple C rank mission?" Kurenai sighed, "Go look for Yamato first and then regroup with Naruto and Hinata fast, I will go look for the other two. Hopefully those two won't get into any trouble. Meet me with everyone else at the square."

"Hai, Kurenai-sensei." With that Haku dashed off.

"Damn, hope things don't get too complicated." Kurenai only wished.

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**With Kiba and Shino**

"Shit! This is bad." Kiba yelled.

"This wouldn't have happened if you acted as you were told." Shino said with an edgy voice.

"Hey, how come this is my fault?" Kiba barked.

"Let's have a look back then, we were ordered to scout the area _only_, in case we find any enemy we were not supposed engage them _but_ you acted illogically yet again, deciding you can take on the enemy." Shino said while he narrowly dodged a shuriken.

"Come on, aren't you suppose to back me up? We are here for bandits, not ninjas. You can't blame me." Kiba replied while he ducked just in time to save his head.

"Logically, as a comrade I ought to stand by your side in tough times to watch your back." Shino said while breathing hard, running while dodging was taking its toll on the newly genins.

Before Kiba could reply, "But right now I doubt I will live long if I act logically. So for now let us use our energy in running instead of bickering." Shino suggested. Before Kiba could reply he dashed to the side after hearing the warning from Akamaru just in time to dodge an arrow. Both of them looked back to see the attacker.

"Oh shit!"

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With Naruto and Hinata

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Naruto was having a great time, Hinata was giving him a lap pillow while with one hand she was scratching his whiskers and with other she was stroking his hair gently. He really liked her touches. It was not for perverted reason, well maybe a bit but mostly because he was not used to gentle physical touches, he envied other kids for this when he was little. But now that Hinata was his girlfriend, she allowed him to touch her as much as he wanted, not sexually though. Those were still high level stuffs for our young couple.

Hinata blushed cutely when Naruto started rubbing his cheeks against her thighs, she learned one new thing about Naruto that he liked to cuddle a lot, she knew the reason why and for that she would let him had his fill, she would blush a lot but was thankful that Naruto till now never touched her inappropriately in any way. Normally she would faint with the excessive physical contacts but when she would see Naruto's happy and content face, her embarrassment would be replaced with happiness.

But their private moment was interrupted by a huge explosion that came further away from the village. They got up hurriedly, fixing themselves they ran towards the explosion site. But before going Naruto made few shadow clones and told them to find others.

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**Battle Site**

Moments Before the large Explosion,

Kiba and Shino had to admit they were lucky. They went out to scout the area as instructed but while scouting they found a few bandits in a small camp. Despite Shino's acute protesting, Kiba engaged them and beat them. But to their surprise more bandits started showing up and before they could do anything, they were attacked with jutsu showing them that some enemy ninjas were in the premise. They made a hasty retreat with the enemy hot on their tail, from the attack and precision Shino deduced that the enemy ninja was at least Chunin level or higher. They were cornered and when all hope seemed lost,

"Lightning Ball."

"Wood Release: Wood Locking Wall."

An intense lightning sphere hit directly at the wooden shield which at the last minute protected the two fresh genin. Yamato landed directly in front of Kiba and Shino while a few enemies landed opposite of them.

But the one that took everyone's attention was a guy who wore a dark-brown sleeveless vest falling to his knees where the inside was purple, a light brown belt, a light grey pants and he had bandages covering most of his body, his neck down to his chest, including his arms and his tibias.

"Raiga Kurosuki, the Thunder of the Hidden Mist." Yamato grunted, he cursed his luck bitterly, from the look of it only Raiga looked an experienced fighter while others looked mostly low to elite genin level.

"I didn't know that Konoha had another wood user." Raiga smirked, "Boys leave this one to me and get the others." Before any of the bandits could move, needles started to fly towards them, and few unlucky ones got hit dead on at the vital points, seeing that every bandit took cover except Raiga.

"Guess you got to see your skill as well, heh No.5, take care of the hidden pest." Raiga talked as if there was another person there. Haku got a bad feeling hearing that. Suddenly all of her instincts told her to get away from there fast and like she was taught, she followed her instincts just in time to dodge an arrow.

"_Someone is out there."_ Haku started scanning the area but she kept moving randomly.

"_That girl is good, this ought to be interesting."_ An unknown figure smirked.

"Shit, what was that?" Yamato panicked a bit, an unknown factor in a shinobi world was always a dangerous thing.

"Are you sure you can concentrate on other people, wood user?" Raiga smirked and readied his swords.

"Fangs of Lightning." He shouted.

Seeing the danger Yamato once again used his wooden defense but the wooden dome was badly damage indicating that it could not go against that attack.

"Kiba, Shino leave the area and go find Kurenai. NOW!" Yamato shouted, if the battle dragged they would get into the cross-fire. Kiba and Shino didn't wait any second longer before they dashed towards the village.

"After them!" Raiga yelled but immediately needles came and hit in front of the would-be pursuers, showing that the hidden ally was still there. Raiga grunted.

"Guess It is just you and me, wood-user." With that Raiga charged at Yamato who started to analyze the situation instantly, Raiga was a lightning user with one of the mist sword, Kiba, whereas he had wood element which was an advanced natural element based on earth.

"Not a good choice but I can't back out now." Yamato thought to himself. He threw some shuriken at him to get some distance. After landing a bit far away from Raiga he pull out a tanto, he used it to practice with Naruto. But he knew he had to avoid getting into a sword fight at any cost, they were not known as the best kenjutsu users for nothing.

"What's wrong? Is running away all you can do?" Raiga snickered.

"_His attacks are straightforward and packs power, well lucky enough my student is the same. Let's see if this works or not."_ With that thought Yamato rushed forward. Raiga smirked and steadied himself but what he didn't expect for Yamato to throw a smoke bomb at him.

"Seriously? A smoke bomb? Do you…" Before Raiga could finish,

"Water release: Water bowl." He got hit by a jet of water point blank throwing him off his feet. He crashed at a tree hard; Yamato seeing the chance didn't waste any time, he threw some shuriken and charged at him. To Raiga's credit he was able to dodge the shurikens but got some cuts and bruises when Yamato attacked him on close range; he took a kick on the stomach and using the force he jumped back to put distance between them.

"Nice one, and let me guess you soaked me thinking that if I use lightning jutsus now I will electrocute myself? You are not the first one to try that." He smirked when he saw Yamato narrowed his eyes. "Take this for size, bastard!"

"Lightning dragon tornado."

"Shit."

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Current Situation

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"Thanks Haku, you just saved me from getting fried." Yamato chuckled.

Moments before Raiga's lightning dragon hit Yamato, Haku came and used her ice mirror to pull Yamato away from the dragon's path. So when the lightning dragon hit the frozen mirrors, it caused a huge explosion.

"No worries sensei, but I think he can still use the attack; his body is emitting strong lightning chakra. I don't think he is going to fall for the same trick twice." Haku said nervously while still not moving her eyes from Raiga.

"An ice user, wow. You got some nice bloodlines there. Don't shoot! We will take the girl, we…." Raiga stopped in time and dodged an incoming lightning kunai while blocking the other two with his swords.

"You ain't taking shit asshole." Naruto came and landed in front of everyone while Hinata landed close to Yamato to check his injuries.

"A Hyuuga, and from the looks of it a seal-less one. Lucky break for me!" Raiga laughed, Naruto growled loudly, he pulled out his swords and took his stance.

"_Checkmate."_ Raiga smirked, "Lightning dragon tornado."

But unlike last time where he had to collect the lightning in his body and spin to use the jutsu, this time it was fast and direct which caught off guard everyone and Naruto was right in its path. But Naruto knew if he were to move everyone else would get caught in the attack as they were directly behind him. Determined, he stood his ground.

"Naruto-kun, NO!" Hinata yelled and rushed but was caught by Yamato.

To everyone's horror, Naruto took the attack full force.

His scream could be heard throughout the forest.

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**Done**

**By the way guys, I was hoping to give Yamato a title, any suggestions on what would sound cool?**


	13. Chapter 13 : Hydra's Rampage

**Hello again everyone. I know most of you guys want to know if I will give Naruto Kiba sword or who will be the third member of the group? Well for now all I can say is,**

**Read on and find out. **

_**Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto.**_

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His scream could be heard throughout the forest.

The whirling vortex of wind and electricity hit Naruto with full power and was tearing him apart, at least that was what everyone thought. Most of the metals in Naruto's body including his blade were crumbled to dust but Naruto still stood his ground. Seeing that Raiga's smirk turned to frown, _"That brat should have been turned to ashes by now." _

Naruto opened his eyes to show that they were pure blue now, no pupil nothing, nothing just pure raging deep blue. Even with all the pressure from the attack he hold out his hands towards Raiga and the bandits, The vortex dragon that was attacking suddenly acted weirdly as if it was being absorbed. Slowly to everyone's shock the whole dragon or rather the lightning part of it was absorbed by Naruto. With a semi-conscious state, he shouted,

"Maelstrom release: Hydra's Rampage."

A halo of bright energy started spreading around Naruto's hands while bright light started covering his hand from wrist up, slowly the light started spreading and reached the halo forming a gigantic sphere on Naruto's hand. Suddenly wind violently started to gather around the sphere and there was a severe screeching noise. To everyone's surprise, pure energy beam forming as a snake with a long horn started coming out from the sphere. And there were total nine of them.

To the enemy's horror they started attacking, it was nothing but a carnage. The energy snakes started to tear down all the bandits as if they were made of paper when impaled them with horns or incinerated them to nothingness with a touch of their body. The snakes continued their rampage randomly for some time, and then slowly they faded.

Raiga was holding his ground with sheer determination and pride, he destroyed two of the snakes but he knew without the Kiba he would have had the same fate like the bandits. He didn't waste any time and whistled, suddenly he was covered by smoke and when it was cleared, he was long gone.

All this time, the Konoha-nins where holding their breath. The first one the break out from the stupor was Hinata who immediately dashed towards Naruto when she saw Raiga fled. She didn't dare to look back at the battle site fearing to see the aftermath of her boyfriend's attack. Yamato came right after her and checked Naruto's vital.

"He is ok for now but we have to move him fast." Yamato reassured Hinata who was sobbing lightly.

"The coast seems clear sensei, let's hurry up before they come back with reinforcements." Haku hurried Yamato who nodded and picked up Naruto and headed back to the village.

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**Few Hours Later**

Back at the village

"So how is he?" Yamato asked, there was a slight desperation in his tone.

"He is out of danger but he needs time to heal fully, he is having severe chakra exhaustion and his hands from wrist up are burned badly. Hinata has taken care of the burn, her herbal cream has sped up the process of the healing. She is taking rest with him now. What the hell happened? It felt like there was a storm going on in your direction, I would have come earlier if I didn't meet Kiba and Shino on the way, they were badly beaten and exhausted so I had to bring them back here first." Kurenai explained her part.

"You have no idea, but first can you explain fully why our mission parameter has changed? Haku found me and just told me that both of you found out that ninjas are involved now, so we had to gather again for the mission update. I need details, normal ninja is one thing but facing another Mist swordsman is not something to be taken lightly." Yamato sighed, this was not how things were supposed be.

"Which one of the swordsmen we have to deal with?" Kurenai asked with a surprising tone.

"Raiga Kurosuki, the thunder of the hidden mist, wielder of Kiba." Hearing that Kurenai frowned.

"Guess things had gone from bad to worse. Well from what we learned is that, someone started to gather some rogue low level ninjas and bandits, the reason is unclear but what we do know is the bandit group we are looking for joined them making things much harder. The villagers are quite scared of this unified group, so no one raised any voice of objection." Scowling Kurenai said, "So what would be the best course of action?"

Yamato sighed while rubbing his forehead, "What else can we do? I will request for some backup and hope they can reach on time, other than that we have to stay and fight, because we can't retreat with Naruto like that and we don't know their full number, there was another skill fighter with them and I am sure that person wasn't injured. So moving around in the dark with an injured ally is not an option, Naruto did took out a lot of their men, I am guessing now they are low on number."

"What was the technique Naruto used? Hinata doesn't even want to talk about it." Kurenai was interested.

"I don't know myself, but I can tell it is a high S class jutsu. You know Naruto's bloodline, right? For the advanced natural bloodline, sometimes the bearer uses new jutsu unknowingly in life threatening situations. Even I came up with some of the jutsu like that." Yamato replied back in a tired voice.

Hearing the tiredness in his voice, Kurenai softened up, "Hey at least we have an ace in our group as well, they didn't fought me, so we can use that to gain the upper hand. But for now let us rest, something tells me we will be needing that quite soon." Yamato nodded in agreement.

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With Naruto

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Naruto's Mindscape

"Ouch, even in my mindscape I am hurting all over." Naruto sighed while stretching his body.

"**What were you expecting brat? Just because you were blessed by Lord Raijin, no lightning attack would affect you at all?**" Raiju grunted, it was calm in his mindscape, no raging wind or thundering clouds indicating that his mind was also got affected by the brutal attack and vicious counter attack.

"Well I kinda half expected that, but come on, did you really thought I was going to move out of the way when my friends and Hinata-chan was behind me?" Naruto grunted.

"**No, I guess not**," Raiju chuckled softly, "_**Well that's what makes you who you are**_."

Suddenly he got serious, "**Your plan was good but flawed, yes in some extent you can absorb or reduce the damage of lightning attack for now but against something of that caliber it was nothing but a suicidal act. Good thing you used a powerful counter attack to avoid getting seriously injured.**"

Now that piqued Naruto's interest, "What was that, Raiju-san? I don't remember clearly but I think I used Laser Circus jutsu, right?"

Raiju laughed softly, "**Better if I show you what you did**." With that Raiju showed the memories of his devastating jutsu and its aftermath.

" .AWESOME! What the hell was that?" Naruto started yelling with over-excitement.

"**That my boy was your very first pure storm release jutsu, well it seems like you also came up with a nice name for your bloodline, Maelstrom, is it? Fits you**." Raiju smiled, seeing that Naruto looked at him with wide puppy eyes, he chuckled. "**So I am guessing you need some explanation of the jutsu, right?**"

Naruto nodded shyly, "**But first I must warn not to use that jutsu until you are ready,**"

Naruto pouted, "Oh come on, I did well there."

"**Naruto, you used the lightning of that S class attack **_**and then**_** you used your own chakra till the last drop to use this technique, do you really think you can handle this?**" Naruto lowered his head with a bit sadness, "**That's why I was against you learning pure storm attacks so early, they are too strong for you Naruto, neither you can control them nor you have power to properly execute them, so give me your word that you won't use it unless it is a life and death situation**."

Naruto nodded, "**Don't feel so bad, give it some time and then you will be able to use jutsu like those properly. Now as for how it works, let's just say it is a huge upgraded version of Laser Circus. In Laser Circus, you store medium amount of lightning and water chakra and combine them to shoot beam at your targets, here you store more, a lot of more. And when an appropriate amount of them is stored in your hand you moved to wind element which started gathering around you, more specifically around the stored area and then you can use your jutsu. In this jutsu water merges with lightning to give it a thick form so that the lightning can move around with more flexibly and in some parts wind merges instead of water. It reduces the forking and turbulence of the lightning while enhances the core and gives it a very high level of cutting edge which can cut through even normal lightning. Also the wind and lightning makes a screeching noise to disorient the enemies.**"

Naruto's jaw hit the floor. He didn't fully comprehend the theory behind the jutsu but he did learn that it was a dangerous wild card. Understanding the risk, he knew what to do, "Guess I have to train more if I want to use Maelstrom jutsu. Are all of the real storm release jutsu going to be the epitome of awesomeness while being a pain in the ass to pull it off?" Raiju grinned seeing that his words went through Naruto.

"**Yes, yes they will, but right now rest. You will need that**."

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XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

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**Somewhere Else**

Raiga was sitting in the bed while observing his hands which were numb from the last battle, mainly the last blow.

"That was one devastating attack, now wasn't it?" Raiga looked in front to see a guy entering the place, he was 5 and a half feet tall with black hair wearing an opened jacket which was dark brown with dark green spot everywhere, inside he was wearing a mesh cloth, arms in his jacket was folded till his elbow revealing his bandage covered arms. His pants matched his jacket, he was holding a medium size scroll. In his cheek there was a tattoo, No.5.

"Heh, nothing I couldn't handle No.5." Raiga scoffed.

"Correct me if I am mistaken but that attack tore through your lightning attacks, right?" The guy named No.5 grinned slightly. Raiga narrowed his eyes but didn't say anything as he was right. When he saw the attack he used his 'Fangs of Lightning' but the beasts tear through that, the only reason he was able to destroy two snakes our of nine was because of his swords, when he hit an energy snake with Kiba it absorbed some of the lightning element from there and dispersed the rest, effectively destroying it but even with Kiba he could still feel the backlash of the attack as if he touched raw lightning. That attack took out most of his men, now he had to approach this differently.

"He may be strong but from the looks of it, he will be out for few days. I will reach my full fighting level soon, just need some rest. We will have to take them out, some of them has quite the rare bloodline we could use. Get ready, this fight I will take you and Ranmaru as well." Raiga said tiredly and laid down on the bed,

"Whatever you say, _boss._" No.5 smirked.

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XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

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**Next Day**

Back at the village

Everyone was getting ready for the upcoming attack, they knew that they would be attacked but what they didn't know was when. Kiba and Shino were having light spar while Kurenai and Haku were patrolling around the village to look out for any suspicious behavior. Yamato told them that he had something to do so he would be gone for a while, and Hinata was still beside Naruto, taking care of him. From the looks of it he started to recover but was still unconscious.

Suddenly there was an explosion just outside the village gate, hearing that the villagers hurried inside to their home. Kurenai looked at Haku who nodded getting the message, she bolted to their place to get everyone. Kurenai remembered what Yamato told her before he headed out.

Flashback

"_Are you sure about this, Yamato-san?" Kurenai asked, she could already see the incoming headache. _

"_Yes, Raiga will attack as soon as he recovers fully and I am afraid Naruto will still be out considering his health, so that's why I am suggesting to be prepared. If they attack before Naruto recovers keep Shino guarding him and we all will move out." Yamato told Kurenai who knew it was better to listen to him in this kind of situations, she might be more experienced as a jonin but he was more experienced in the battle field than her. _

"_Don't you think Hinata would be better?" Kurenai asked knowing that she wouldn't be happy to hear that. _

"_As much as I would like to have her or Haku guard Naruto, we will need some power to beat whatever Raiga will try to throw at us and also to locate their archer. Kiba is brash so I don't want him guarding Naruto, Shino acts logically and thinks ahead so he is perfect for this. Before we go out to confront Raiga and his team we have to secretly move Naruto to a much safer place just as a precaution. I will go out just for a while to test out something, if it works I can fight head on with Raiga." Yamato explained briefly about his plan._

_Kurenai nodded in acknowledgement._

Flashback ends

Kurenai didn't wait long before Yamato came, he looked a bit rusty indicating that he was training of some sorts, before she could ask everyone else came. Hinata was there but anyone could tell she was reluctant to go, Kurenai just went to her and patted her shoulder while smiling making Hinata to feel better.

"All right, everyone. Let's move out and remember _follow_ our commands. These are powerful shinobi we are going to fight. So _do not_ act brashly." Yamato said with steel voice while he narrowed his eyes at Kiba at one point. Kiba gulped knowing full well that this time mistakes meant death.

With that they all moved out to confront their enemies.

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Outside the village

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"So we meet again, wood-user." Raiga smirked. They were out in a small open field, behind Yamato there was the end of the forest from which they came from, a bit to the side there was a hill. But the main problem for our ally was only Raiga was standing in the clearing while there were no sign of any other. Yamato was glad that he told Hinata and Kurenai to position themselves at the edge of the forest so that they were not visible and yet not far away from them in case if they needed backup. Kiba and Haku were a bit behind Yamato and were waiting for their order.

Raiga and Yamato were having a stare down, waiting to see who would initiate first. Suddenly, Raiga pointed his swords upwards,

"Bingo." Yamato smirked. "Wood Style: Wood Clone jutsu." Two wooden clones came and stood beside Yamato who threw them some objects while he shouted at the duo behind him,

"Get back and have a lookout for the other one." With that he took out his own sword but it was slightly different.

"Take this! Fangs of Lightning." The twin lightning strike rushed toward their target but before they could hit, one of the wood clone came in front of it and hold out the object. To everyone's surprise it withstood full damage albeit looking a bit damaged.

"What just happened?" Raiga was confused but he didn't have time to ponder over it as Yamato charged at him grinning.

His little project worked, he used wood clone as a medium to absorb the lightning and passed it down to the ground effectively nullifying the attack, and the clones were holding two metal rods to attract the lightning itself. The clones would take damage depending on the attack but he upgraded his clone jutsu, now his wood clones could replenish themselves by taking minerals from the ground if the damage was not too extensive. So it was the best option to go around Raiga's most of the lightning attacks. He also upgraded his sword, he put a bit of enhanced wood parts in the handle and one side of his sword so that it could withstand Raiga's own.

Swords clashed with each other. Raiga was the better swordsman among them and both knew that but Yamato's goal was to deceive Raiga, while he was showing that he was getting aggressive all he was doing was trying to nerve Raiga into using more of his lightning attacks,

"Got you! Lightning Ball." Raiga shouted, but before his attack could hit Yamato, he substituted himself with his wooden clone who once again took the attack nullifying it, but he saw a small red flash before substituting which he disregarded.

Before Raiga could destroy the clone, Yamato smirked, "Wood release: Smothering Binding Technique." Thick wooden branch started encircling around Raiga and then suddenly started to bind him, while restricting him the branch thickened more making him completely immobilized.

"Checkmate, Raiga." Yamato smirked but it vanished when he saw Raiga chuckling, he snapped from his thought by Hinata's yelling, "Yamato-sensei, look out."

Yamato didn't know what was going to happen but he jumped back and shouted, "Wood release: Wood locking wall." Before the wall could even form properly it was hit by a vortex dragon which crushed it and headed towards him but one of his wood clones jumped in front of him to take the damage for him.

But that caused a great explosion to occur. The clone gave enough time for Yamato to back off but the force of the explosion was strong enough to make Yamato flew towards Kiba and Haku. Haku caught Yamato in the midair but cried out when an arrow grazed her shoulder cutting it deeply, she looked around to see Kiba got hit by arrows as well, one in the leg and one he was able to dodge in time but it still cut his arm badly. Few more arrows started to fly towards them but they were stopped by shuriken, courtesy of Kurenai.

Kurenai landed on the clearing and shouted, "Demonic Illusion: Haunted Mirror."

Suddenly the area seemed to distort a bit and to everyone's surprise Raiga was standing where Yamato's substituted wood clone was and the same wood clone was now restricted by wooden branch. Everyone suddenly snapped their head to a screaming voice.

A bit further a young boy clutched his head and fell down. He had chin length purple hair which parted in the middle. He also had light red-colored eyes. He wore a light-purple shirt with black stripes on each side, a sash around his waist, a pair of dark-colored pants and sandals.

"Ranmaru." Raiga shouted and jumped to see if the kid was ok.

"I am ok Raiga-san, that woman was able to reverse my genjutsu. It took a lot out of me." With that the boy called Ranmaru lost consciousness.

"What happened?" Yamato grumbled out.

"Genjutsu, one so strong that even Byakugan couldn't catch it on time." Kurenai explained which caused Yamato to raise an eyebrow and made a face of 'Explain please'.

"This is only a hypothesis, but I think that boy there started to use an area based genjutsu sometime between the fight, it was showing all of us that there were no disturbance in the nature, so when Raiga started to gather more than normal lightning to use his devastation attack you couldn't react faster. And for the swap part I think he used another genjutsu on you to catch you off guard. That kid is something else." Kurenai clarified, Yamato grunted and tried to get up.

"So how did Hinata figure it out?" Yamato asked while he motioned something at Haku.

"She was using her Byakugan from the start to have a lookout for the archer, so when Raiga was preparing his lethal attack the environment started changing rapidly, I guess she sensed something was wrong when her vision showed that there was a huge difference in nature from our area to further ones as she was able to see further. Guess the kid's genjutsu had a limited range. Right now Hinata went after the archer, she got his location. It would be better if you can send someone to back her up." Kurenai said while taking a fighting stance.

"Haku." Yamato called her.

"The arrow cut my shoulder badly, I was able to stop the bleeding but I can't use my right arm properly now, Kiba-san here got hit on the leg and his arm, he also took some nasty hit from the blast, I could help Hinata a little bit but Kiba can't fight." Haku summarized their situation.

"Take Kiba out of here and come back to help me. Kurenai-san, you should go help Hinata." Yamato said while he took his sword.

"Are you sure, you took quite a bit of hits." Kurenai was concerned, she wanted to help Hinata true but Yamato looked quite beaten up.

"Yes I am sure, I might take some nasty hits cause of the explosion but Raiga is low on chakra. He might have been able to catch me off guard but he did waste a lot of chakra." Yamato replied back in assuring voice. Kurenai mouthed 'Thank you' then ran after her student.

"Come Raiga, let's finish this. This is dragging way too long for comfort."

"Wouldn't have said any better myself."

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With Hinata

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Hinata knew something was wrong when the battle started to get intense, with her Byakugan she was able to see that the sky further away from them was acting as if it was gather on their spot but the sky there wasn't that stormy, suddenly she saw the pattern on the sky away from them, it was the same when Raiga used his lightning dragon, she then knew that all of them were trapped in some kind of jutsu, she yelled to warn Yamato, it did save his life but he still took some damage. Then she saw the archer coming to her vision range, she informed Kurenai who told her to go after the archer.

She reached the top to see the guy with a weird looking bow, at the middle section of the bow there was two sticks pointing inwards which looked some kind of handle, and the string of it was made of chakra.

"Leave it to a Hyuuga to spot the target. But all this actually worked in my favor. So shall we dance little princess." No.5 smirked.

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XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

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**Back at the Village**

An explosion rocked the village, just like Yamato predicted a good number of bandits came to their place but what they didn't know was that Naruto was moved to another place and their previous one was rigged with explosives. So, when Shino saw the chance he triggered the explosion killing all the bandits.

"What was that?" Naruto said while he steered up.

"Naruto-san, it is good to see that you are ok." Shino greeted Naruto.

"Where is everyone else?" Naruto said in a panic voice, he jumped up but was stopped by Shino.

"They are out there fighting but it will be unwise to join them in your condition." Shino stated much to his own hesitation. Naruto wanted to shout him but working with him before he knew that he had to be calm with him rather than being edgy.

"Look Shino, you saw how strong the opponent was, you are fully capable and I might be able to help even if it is a little bit. You and I both know that they will need all the extra hands that they can get." Naruto said with a rigid voice.

Shino thought for a while, he knew Naruto was right, he sighed and just shook his head.

"Your gears are there, Naruto-san. Let us make haste but do not strain yourself." Shino gave in.

Naruto smiled.

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With Hinata

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Hinata was panting. She didn't expected this, the moment she came here she charged towards her enemy who called himself No.5, but to her surprise the bow he was using suddenly snapped into two and he took ahold of them by the sticks, it became a fully different weapon.

A tonfa.

And he was not a novice with that, so they engaged in a fierce close range combat. Hinata was more flexible and accurate with her strikes but her opponent had longer reach and packed power, sometimes he would rotate the tonfa to increase the range or to change the direction of the attack. Hinata knew she couldn't fall back cause the moment she would fall back he would switch back to his bow and winning would be harder.

"Hinata!" Kurenai yelled, hearing that Hinata released a breath of relief.

"I think playtime is over, time to do my real mission." With that No.5 formed a ram seal and shouted,

"Katsu!"

The side of the hill that was facing the battlefield exploded, everyone was horrified to see a huge landslide fell over all of them who were down on the ground, even Kurenai who was on her way there fell down cause of the landslide.

"Everyone!" Hinata panicked.

"Do you have time to look at other?" No.5 taunted. Hinata moved just in time to dodge a lethal arrow, she cursed herself for the blunder, now that he increased the distance he was once again using his bow.

"Why did you do that? Even your own comrades were down there." Hinata was angry, something she wasn't quite familiar with.

"They were not my comrades, I needed something from them more specifically from Raiga, didn't have the chance before as the guy never let his guard down but you guys just gave me the perfect opportunity." He grinned.

"The mist sword." Hinata was surprised.

"Yup but I think an unmarked Byakugan will be profitable as well." No.5 steadied his bow.

Hinata shivered but resolved herself quickly and took her stance.

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With Naruto

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While moving to the battle site, they saw the lightning dragon all the way from there, Naruto increased his pace ignoring Shino's protest. But when they heard series of explosion and felt the ground shaking, Naruto moved so fast that Shino fell behind.

"Everyone, Hinata. Please be alright."

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Back with Hinata

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Hinata was battered and exhausted, she couldn't keep up with the guy. If she got closer, he would use his tonfa which was lethal against her unarmed taijutsu, true gentle fist was strong but her chakra enhanced attacks were no match against his chakra enhanced _weapon_ attacks, he was dragging the battle to tire her down and despite knowing that she was unable to do anything.

No.5 smirked and shot a fast arrow, Hinata dodged but she was horrified when she saw him saying,

"Checkmate."

The arrow exploded and everything went white, a flash arrow, Hinata with her Byakugan activated took the hit hard even though she dodged.

She stressed her eyes to open, just in time to see;

Naruto landed on the hill just in time to see;

Hinata got hit by an arrow right in her heart.

The force of the arrow was so strong that it threw Hinata back, she fell from the hill but Shino arrived just in time to catch her.

"Oops. Was she your girlfriend?" No.5 laughed but stopped when he felt the murderous aura.

It was pure, it was malicious, it was so strong that he started breathing hard.

Red bubbles started to appear from Naruto's body and slowly it started to make a form, his whiskers became more defined, his teeth grew, he opened his eyes and it was crimson red with glowing white slit in the middle. Red lightning started to emit from his body as well. Slowly the chaotic chakra made a full form.

Form of a fox with one tail with red lighting flickering around the chakra cloak.

Naruto looked at no.5 who found it was even difficult to stand. Naruto tilted his head and smirked viciously.

"**I want to see your insides**."

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**OMAKE**

How it began

Anko was celebrating her promotion to tokubetsu Jonin. It was her, Kurenai and Yugao. They were having fun although from time to time Anko could hear the whispers. She just disregarded them, after a while few other Jonins started to come. Seeing Asuma, Kurenai went to talk for a while and Yugao was having a conversation with Hayate.

Suddenly a guy came and sat beside her, he was of average height and build, and he had dark brown hair tied onto a ponytail. He had a scar that ran across the bridge of his nose which Anko found a bit sexy.

"Congratulation on the promotion." The man said.

"Hmm? You are congratulating me? So you are not one of those guys that think me as a 'Snake whore'?" Anko asked in a tipsy voice. The man just raised an eyebrow and chuckled a bit.

"What's so funny? Most of the people are thinking why someone like me promoted to tokubetsu Jonin. I bet the Third had to go through lots of hassle for me." Anko said with an edgy voice.

"Do you believe them?" The man said with a soft smile.

"Excuse me?" Anko was now giving full attention to the guy.

"Do you believe all the whispers? All the bad things people say? You got promoted to tokubetsu Jonin with your own effort and I am sure the shinobi populace is happy to have another tough fighter among us." The man chuckled, "Just remember what your friends think about this. And from what can I see they are truly happy for you, doesn't all that matter?"

Anko sighed, now she got what the man wanted, there were mostly two types of men she had seen, one that avoided her for different reasons and one that tried to get into her pant. She guessed that he was after the latter because no one would say something so nice to her out of the blue without wanting something in return.

"So handsome, want to go celebrate somewhere private?" Anko said with a suggestive tone to see what he would do. She expected the guy to jump at the chance or to try to play a bit hard to get game, maybe he would start flirting. What she didn't expect was that for him to spew his drink while going full tomato-red. He looked at her horrified and was trying to form a sentence.

Anko was so surprised at the behavior that when Kurenai came and nudged her, she jumped.

"Don't scare me like that Kure-chan." Anko said while trying to come down. Hearing the commotion Yugao came as well,

"What's wrong? You were talking to someone?" She asked as she saw her talking with someone.

"Ya, I was …" She looked back to see that the guy was gone_. "He ran?!"_ She started chuckling, slowly it turned to full blown laughter.

"_This will be interesting."_

Iruka was running full force, he went to the bar to relax as he had a hard day. Catching Naruto was no easy task like everyone else thought it to be, the little devil knew how to avoid his pursuers. At first he viewed Naruto exactly like the villagers but not so strongly, but slowly that kid started to take a soft spot on him. He learned that he was like him, lonely, thirsting for attention. Now Iruka would willingly admit that he liked the blond prankster. He decided that from then he would follow his own judgment instead of listening to others.

So when he came to the pub and saw some girls celebrating for something about promotion, he asked around. He didn't get any good response, so he chose to judge her by himself. At first he understood her pain, she was similar like Naruto. So he responded to her with kindness but her last statement caught him completely off-guard. She was sexy and hot, he would admit that but one thing he knew from his shinobi career that the sexier the kuniochi was the more dangerous she would be. So he did the most logical thing when he saw her distracted,

He bolted.

But for some reason he couldn't shook of the chill that went down his spine.

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**Done**

**I will put the extra fun parts as Omake but don't think I can always put Omake, it depends on my time. But I will try to make them enjoyable.**

**Till next time**


	14. Chapter 14 : The True Treasure

**Yo guys, sorry for the late posting. I have exams going on. Also very sorry that I cannot reply to all the reviews like I used to but when I get time, I will start doing it again. **

**But thanks for reviewing and liking the story so far.**

_**Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto.**_

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The nine Biju were created from the dreadful Juubi, even though at first their hearts were in the right place, their chakra was not. And to balance that out from the Nature twelve creatures, known as Zodiac beasts, were born. Raiju found it was unfair how the Biju's fell victim to the darkness of the mankind while the Zodiac beasts received the kindness from the humans. After all this year, most of the Biju's hearts became as tainted as their chakra.

Now Raiju was facing Kurama, one of the strongest of them, who was laughing, not menacingly but more like he just figured out a joke.

"**I know what you did Raiju. You created another mindscape over mine to act as a barrier to make sure the brat doesn't come here. Maybe you were afraid that he might be tainted or his blessed power might merge with mine. But look, even with all these **_**precautions **_**he drew out my chakra, and so much of it but the best part is he did it all by **_**himself**_**.**" Kurama said when his laughter slowed down. He looked at Raiju and smirked.

"**No matter what you will do Raiju, nothing will work. I saw the darkness in mankind. Just because one person is good and pure doesn't mean he won't be tainted. It is the other way around. Take it like this, the better a person is in heart and in soul the higher he flies but when his wings snaps, and trust me they always do, they fall to the ground hardest. And after tasting despair and pain, they are the ones that get twisted beyond saving**." Kurama chuckled when he saw Raiju flinched for a second, "**This kid will also fall; maybe not today, or tomorrow but someday his wings will broke as well. But I have to admit I am surprised to see him combining my chakra with his own blessed power.**"

Raiju looked down for a moment as if he was in deep thought, then suddenly he started chuckling softly, "**You may be right in some cases, Kurama. But I think you are wrong about Naruto. His wings are strong enough not only to carry himself but also his loved ones and in return his loved ones will make sure to protect his wings. Yes, in this world anything can happen but for once I will bet on a human. He is different, you and I both know it. Like you said there is darkness in everyone but I know he will overcome his own.**" Raiju met Kurama's grin with his own.

"**Then let us see how it all plays out.**" Kurama just shook his head.

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XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

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**With Naruto**

When Naruto heard the series of explosions and trembling of the ground that came after that he dashed. He panicked but for some reason he could _feel _all of his friends, they were alive but injured, not critically but Hinata was in a different place than others. His heart started to feel heavy, he ran as fast his legs could, _"Hinata, be safe, be safe."_ That was all he thought.

When he was able to pinpoint her location he landed there only to see her get shot to the heart by an arrow. She fell down the cliff but Shino caught her before she hit the ground. He saw from all the way up there that blood started coming out from her mouth.

Rage.

Pure Rage.

That's all he was feeling. He looked at the guy that had the galls to hurt _his _Hinata.

He wanted to crush his bone one by one,

Leisurely so he could hear the sound of his bone breaking.

He wanted to tear the guy limb by limb,

Slowly so he could hear him scream.

He wanted to cut him open to pull out his organs painfully.

While he was still alive and conscious.

He would scream at him, would beg to kill him.

But he wouldn't let him die, not so quickly.

All this thoughts ignited a new power inside of him, he felt it and without a second thought he embraced it. But it was not enough, he started to push pure raw lightning chakra while getting covered by that wicked one. His body hurt but he gave no mind to that, although it gave him a sick pleasure when he saw the fear in his victim's eyes. He grinned.

"**I want to see your insides."**

No.5 dashed back and started shooting arrows hastily, he knew what Naruto was, a jinchuriki. There was no way to go around it. His mission was to get Raiga's sword, all till now looked like it was going well until he pissed of a jinchuriki. He would have to get the sword later, now his main objective was to get the hell out of there alive, at any cost; if he can. When he saw his arrows couldn't penetrate his chakra cloak he threw flash arrows and waited for them to go off. The moment it did, he ran the other side of where Naruto was.

Then he heard some 'swooshing' sound and he took a hard turn to dodge an incoming 'hand'. It was a chakra hand, it landed on a huge stone and grinded it to dust as if it was nothing. He looked back to see, Naruto was just a few meters away from, same distance like before but he wasn't moving, just staying there, grinning at him, taunting him; it was like a predator playing with his prey. No.5 paled, he wasn't so sure if he could come back alive. He needed a distraction, a…..

The ground beneath him cracked, he looked down to a chakra hand came out and grabbed his ankle so tightly that he felt his bones started cracking. He looked at Naruto in horror to see one of his hand was pointing downwards and a thick chakra pierced the ground. Before he could do anything, Naruto pulled his hand, the arm that was holding his ankle forced him to come towards him.

No.5 was trying to find a way, any way to get out of this alive but he knew that he couldn't. He felt the arm holding his ankle tightened the grip breaking the bones there, and some chakra was also being injected inside him, not the malice chakra, the lightning one which was making his body go numb. It was even hard to mold his chakra now. Naruto smacked him in to the ground, No.5 looked at him helplessly as Naruto put both of his hand up from where chakra arm came out and formed as a hammer, and then, he started smashing him.

One time,

Two time,

He would smash him hard and then wait to see if he was conscious, then would smash him again.

He didn't know how long the hellish beating continued but it stopped after a while which felt like eternity to him.

Naruto looked at him with calculated eyes; yes, he broke his bones, all of them maybe, just like he wanted to. Now to tear him from limb to limb, one at a time.

"Naruto-kun." The sweet voice that he fought for called out to him. He looked back to see Hinata was there standing, looking at him with worried eyes. Yamato was coming towards her shouting and telling her to get back. He snarled at him and in an instance he was right in front of Hinata. Hinata was surprised at his sudden outburst of speed but she smiled at him afterwards, seeing Naruto grumbling, she made slow shushing sound and opened her jacket, although it was really embarrassing for her but the situation was dire. She pointed at her heart.

"See Naruto-kun, I was not injured, you saved me." She hold out the Uzumaki locket which was a bit dented. She was hit by the arrow right in the heart area but the arrow was blunt, it was meant for her to get knocked out without injuring her although it would had done some extensive damage but luck was on her side as it hit the necklace which took most of the damage, surprisingly it got dented a bit only, but the force still pushed her back and she received some damage from that.

Hinata's face lit up like Christmas light when Naruto started sniffing her left breast. She hold out her hand to touch Naruto but Naruto moved his head back wearily and looked at her cautiously. Seeing that Hinata shook of her embarrassment and started humming a gentle tune which seemed to calm him down a bit. She once again hold out her hand but this time he didn't back out. She was ready for the pain that would come when she would touch the chakra cloak but to her surprise the moment she was inches away from that, the chakra cloak vanished from there, it was still covering his arm and legs also the chakra tail and ears were still visible but on other areas of Naruto's body the chakra cloak seemed to be dwindled as if the chakra itself didn't want to hurt her. She took the chance and started scratching his darkened whiskers, he started purring indicating that he liked that.

"It's ok, Naruto-kun. I am here. You beat up all the bad guys. Rest now." She said gently and slowly trying to reassure him that it was over.

Hinata sat down and slowly pulled Naruto's head onto her lap. With one hand she was scratching his whiskers and with another she was rubbing his head while humming the tune. Slowly the cloak vanished leaving a normal but battered Naruto in Hinata's lap. She smiled and gently kissed him on the cheek. Naruto purred a bit and rubbed his head against her thighs making her blush fiercely.

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With Yamato

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When the explosion occurred, Yamato quickly created his 'wood locking wall' with all his remaining chakra, not to increase the size of the wall but to harden it. Good thing that no one else was there for him to cover. After the landslide passed he came out exhausted to see Kurenai was nursing Haku, who seemed to be in a catching duty on this mission.

Minutes later they felt that, the dreadful Kyuubi's aura. They saw Shino was holding Hinata who was coughing cause of the hit she received. Yamato immediately got the idea of what occurred but before he could even say anything, Hinata shook Shino off and ran towards the chakra, Yamato told Kurenai to stay there and to keep an eye on the genin and Raiga whose whereabouts was still unknown.

Because of all the fights he was not as fast as his normal self, so when he reached he saw Hinata was calling out to Naruto and he was in chakra cloak mode, way too much Kyuubi's chakra slipped out of the seal. He shouted at Hinata to get back but that seemed to rile up Naruto who, in an instance, was beside Hinata. He stopped dead on his track. One wrong move and he might hurt Hinata. He started wrecking through his brain to come up with something, anything to avoid the tragedy that he was sure to come.

Wasn't he supposed to protect him from this? Wasn't that one of the reason he started looking after this boy? All of his thoughts prevented him to see what Hinata was doing until he heard her humming. After what transpired from there, was engraved in his memory and he knew he would forever remember this. Hinata calmed down a pissed off powered up jinchuriki with just a tune and some simple touches. No fucking wood jutus or Sharingan, nothing.

The tension was too much, he fell on his butt and started laughing.

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XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

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**With Raiga**

The landslide was coming towards them, he could have dodged it but Ranmaru was there, he had to protect him. He used his second 'Lightning Dragon Tornado' on the landslide to make a way for him to go to Ranmaru. When he reached him it was too late, the landslide was already upon them, so he charged as much lightning as he could and used his favorite jutsu 'Fangs of lightning' and hold it for as long as he could. When it was over, he looked back to see if Ranmaru was alright or not and to his relief he was. But sadly he took too much damage from the rubbles and his chakra was almost zero, he knew he wouldn't live for long.

Ranmaru woke up to see Raiga all battered up and he couldn't feel his chakra, he moved in to re-energize him with his own chakra.

"Don't, Ranmaru. You don't have enough chakra and even you give me all, this injuries will kill me anyway." Hearing Ranamaru's cries, he softened up, "Live on Ranmaru, go with the Konoha shinobi, they will take care of you. But before that could you come here. I want one last favor from you." Ranmaru moved to hear his foster father's last wish.

Kurenai came to check if Raiga was alive or not, after Yamato left she heard a loud thundering noise coming from a bit far. She came to see Raiga was looking at Ranmaru softly and shushing the kid who was crying. It broke her heart even though they were her enemies, from taking on look at Raiga she could see his time was up. Seeing Kurenai, Raiga looked at her pleadingly.

"I know I am not in any position to ask for any favor, but tell the wood-user that I respected him as an excellent shinobi. And if he felt anything similar to me at all, please ask him to look after Ranmaru. Take Ranmaru to him and he….will…tell…the…rest." With the last part he closed his eyes.

Ranmaru started crying harder. Kurenai let him, the child needed to release his pain. She waited until Ranmaru fell asleep crying, then she pick him up and came back to the rendezvous point to see Yamato was holding Naruto while Hinata was on his side, she released a breath of relief.

"Let's go back."

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XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

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**Back at the Village**

After one day

Yamato was staring at Ranmaru who was fidgeting and for some reason was close to Naruto who had no idea what was happening.

"I respected Raiga, I will admit that he was a great fighter and if I can I would like to honor his wish but could you start from the beginning." Yamato said softly so he didn't scare the kid.

In response the kid just looked at Naruto and said, "Umm, Nii-san could you hold out your hand?" Ranmaru said politely which all the girls found cute, heck even Naruto was feeling all high and mighty cause someone called him 'Nii-san'. He did and Ranmaru took the Kiba swords from his bag and before anyone could do anything he shoved the swords into Naruto's hand.

Suddenly lightning started coming out the swords and formed the shape of Raiga, everyone's eyes almost popped out. Seeing that Raiga chuckled a bit, "Now this is a scene I think I will enjoy in my afterlife. But as much as I wish to talk and discuss I wasn't able to put too much chakra. In short, I put my remaining chakra here to do one last thing. You boy," pointing at Naruto, "What's your name?"

"Naruto Uzumaki." Naruto replied but he was sweating a lot, this guy was a mist swordsmen meaning he knew how to kick his ass and now his ghost came to haunt him.

"This is one of the tradition for those who wielded Kiba, the owner can pass it down to the last person who impressed him in case he or she dies untimely. And to me you did that, you are the first person who was able to withstand one of the Kiba's strongest attacks. So I will pass Kiba to you in return all I ask is that give me your word that you will take care of Ranmaru, treat him like your family; that is my only request, as one swordsmen to other."

Naruto nodded violently. "I promise I will take care of him like my own brother, and I never back down on my promise." Seeing his determination in his eyes, Raiga chuckled, looking at Ranmaru his face saddened a bit,

"Find the life I couldn't give you my son."

With that the lightning vanished and Naruto shook for a second, he looked at his hand to see a bit blood came out and it fell on Kiba which glowed when it got his blood and absorbed it after which it glowed for a second time and calmed down. Nobody knew what to say after the bizarre situation.

"It was a ghost wasn't it?" Naruto asked after that his eyes rolled to the back of his head and he was once again to his dreamland.

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Few Hours later

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Naruto woke up to see Hinata was beside him chatting with Haku and Ranmaru was close to them while listening raptly. His groan told them about him being conscious again,

"Naruto-kun, you ok?" Hinata asked while Haku giggled a bit, "Don't worry Hinata-chan, he is fine. He thought he was possessed by a ghost."

Naruto narrowed his eyes but didn't have a comeback for that. He looked at Ranmaru who was looking as if he was out of place. "Yo little guy, how are you feeling?"

"He lost his father figure and now he is onto his way to a new village which he has no idea about. But I think he is fine." Haku playfully answered for Ranmaru who blushed and Naruto looked pissed.

"Alright guys break it up." Yamato came into the room, "Ranmaru here helped us to finish our _original _mission, he gave me the whereabouts of the place where bandits kept their lootings and luckily we found our requested item."

Kurenai and the rest also entered the room. "It is broken, so we can take a peek at it right?" Kiba asked curiously.

"Well, it was damaged and I happen to see what was inside accidentally but here you go." All the young ones came and took a look inside the box, which was put into a table by Yamato; there was a picture and a worn out wristband made of marbles.

"What the heck, this is it? Why did the old guy tell this was a treasure? Damn we almost died for these junks." Kiba got pissed and left, almost everyone left feeling a bit disappointed except Naruto who was looking at the picture intently. The picture was of a guy, who looked younger version of Karashi, who was laughing while hugging a women tightly and the said women was kissing his cheek. For some reason he felt something as if the picture was giving him a déjà vu. He had no idea which part but it scared him. He went back to his friends and tried to forget about it.

"Alright guys we will be going back to the village after we have a decent meal and rest, so pack up your gears." Kurenai ordered out.

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XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

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**Hokage's Office**

There were no problems in their way back. Naruto carried Ranmaru and they reached their home a bit faster than their expected time, now they are in front of Hokage who was rubbing his head.

"Kurenai, Yamato, Naruto and Ranmaru stay, others can leave." Hearing that the rest of the genins left hesitatingly. "Yamato, I don't know should I keep sending you and Naruto to C rank missions to bring more beneficial factors to the village or should stop you from doing any, in order to save the ones you are supposed to back up."

Yamato and Naruto blushed a bit hearing that.

"So, let me get the facts straight, you faced _another _mist swordsman who died being betrayed by his fellow comrade who was pulverized by a Kyuubi empowered Naruto and who it seemed was stopped by Hinata singing lullaby to him. Oh yes, let's not forget Raiga who was on the verge of dying used the 'honor code' of shinobi to make sure you take care of Ranmaru and at the end he gave Naruto the ownership of Kiba, one of the legendary mist swords which now cannot be accessed by any other person." Sandaime looked at the jonin to confirm all of those.

"Hokage-sama, why not let Ranmaru join our team? I mean we already have two members and with him we will have three, a proper functioning team. What do you say?" Naruto asked with a hopeful voice.

"Naruto-kun, it is not that easy. There are things you have to follow and by the look of it although Ranmaru wants to be a Konoha shinobi, he has very little training on shinobi skills unlike Haku, and so it is better if he starts from academy. And not to mention the paperwork that will come with it if I just put him directly in your team without any proper reasoning." Hiruzen sighed, even though it would have been better that way it would cause too many problems and suspicions.

"Let's make a deal, you assign Ranmaru in our team and I and Haku would do our best to shape him up faster than any academy can." Naruto insisted, he had a trump card but he didn't wanted to use it so soon.

"Naruto I cannot do that, there will be too…." Hiruzen replied firmly but was stopped when Naruto brought out his trump card,

"I will tell you the secret to beat the paperwork." In a few second, Yamato was holding some papers confirming that Ranmaru was now officially on his team. Kurenai and Ranmaru was watching the whole scene played out and truthfully it was funny as hell. Hiruzen looked at Naruto with eyes that was screaming for 'The Secret'.

Naruto sighed and made the sign for 'Shadow Clone'. Hiruzen looked at him puzzled but then it all clicked.

The god of shinobi, feared by the evil, respected by his enemies, sensei of the legendary sanins, started banging his head on his table while weeping 'why'.

Everyone sweat-dropped except for Naruto, who was grinning madly.

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XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

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**Sometime later**

Karashi was leaving, he got his treasure back. Now it was time for him to hit the road again. But he stopped when he saw the blond kid ahead of him.

"I thought you were going to celebrate with your friends about the tough mission. Sorry about that kid, I didn't know…"

He was stopped when Naruto softly asked, "Who was she? The women on the picture."

Karashi's face saddened but he replied, "My late fiancée, why?"

"What happened?" Naruto asked again.

Karashi's face hardened, "Why do you want to know brat?"

Naruto looked at him sadly, "In the picture, your eyes are full of life and hope. They were reflecting all of yourself and now here you are wearing a mask, when I saw the picture I knew there was something similar but at first I didn't know what, it is your smile, they are same like mine. You smile now like how I used to." "_Before I found out about Hinata-chan and Iruka-sensei._"

"Long story brat, let's take a seat first." They moved at one side of the road and sat on a bench.

"Now where do I begin, ahh. Let's start from the beginning, I was an orphan in Takigakure, a small shinobi village. As an orphan I didn't receive much attention so I wanted to be the best to prove that I can be someone other than a nobody. I worked hard till I dropped and it all started paying off, my first friend who became my fiancée. She was also an orphan who supported me all the way. I became a respected jonin and a well-known figure throughout the shinobi side as well as the civilian side."

Karashi paused as he looked to the sky sadly, "But one day, we were attacked by some strong enemies, they were after someone in our village. I had a bad feeling about that attack, I wanted to stay in the village to protect my fiancée as she was pregnant, but she reassured me everything was going to be fine. So I left to confront the enemy with some other strong shinobis as well as with our Kage. It was a bloodbath, there were two of them but they were strong. At the end we won, one of them died other retreated, we lost some good man and I lost my arm in order to protect the Kage. But when I came back,"

Karashi paused again. He closed his eyes but Naruto could see the tears leaking, "Everything was gone. My fiancée was killed along with some other people by one of the enemy's technique, I didn't know the detail of the technique but didn't care. Everyone said it was going to be ok, they even nominated me to take a seat in the council, one of the thing I dreamed of but it didn't matter. The person I wanted in my life more than my dream was gone, what's the point? All the acknowledgements, honor and medals wouldn't bring back my true treasure. She was gone and so was my soul and my will. After that I left the village, I just wander around. All that left of her is the memories and a few stuffs like this." With that he took out the picture and the wristband and looked at those yearningly.

"Well that is my life story kid. In this world, you don't know when you are going to die or worse when your precious one will. So make sure to find and hold onto your real treasure." With that he stood up and started heading towards the village gate, without even looking back.

"Why don't you blame anyone, the villagers or those guys?" Naruto yelled at the retreating back.

"I am not a coward kid, the only thing I blamed and still blame is my hesitation for not following my intuition, my weakness for not being strong enough and my blindness for not seeing my actual dream, a life with her." Karashi gave Naruto a smile, a true sad smile, one that portrayed all of his feelings then.

Naruto waited till Karashi's figure vanished.

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With Hinata

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Hinata and the rest of the members that did the C rank mission had a small celebration for surviving the mission which turned into an A rank. Naruto left saying that he needed to do something. After an hour or two, they were done and Hinata was returning home when she saw her boyfriend on a tree a bit far away from her compound.

"Naruto-kun." Hinata called him out but stopped when she saw his pained look. Before she could ask he jumped and landed behind Hinata, he wrapped his arm around her waist while burying his nose into her neck, Hinata would have turned crimson if she didn't feel him shaking slightly, she knew even if she would ask what happened Naruto wouldn't tell her, not now. So she just stood there and was patting his hand.

"I am not like you, Karashi-jiji. I will be stronger, more than now." He whispered and buried his nose deeper.

"_I will protect my true treasure."_

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**OMAKE**

FALLING FOR A TEACHER

"So what's wrong, Anko? Lately you seem to be up to something." Kurenai asked in an accusing tone. She, Anko and Yugao were having a girl's night out.

"Well I found this one interesting guy." Anko replied back absentmindedly.

"What?" Both Kurenai and Yugao shouted.

"You are falling for a man?" Yugao asked.

"Anko." Hearing the seriousness in her voice, Anko looked at Kurenai, "Is he a good person?"

Flashback

_Anko was following Iruka who just caught the prankster, she was a specialist in T&amp;I department, getting information was a piece of cake for her, she found out the mysterious kind person just in one day. She saw how Iruka was dealing with Naruto, the jinchuriki, he got mad when he saw Naruto did wrong, Oh how sexy he looked when he was mad, she got a bit turned on seeing his angry face, it didn't contain any malice or evil just anger for the brat, for his wellbeing. After the jinchuriki quieted down and mumbled an apology, he smiled warmly and took him to a ramen stand._

Flashback Ends

Well if he liked the jinchuriki who everyone hated and he did it because he cared while giving no considerations towards those who thought what he was doing was wrong; so he was definitely a good person; scratch that, he was a great person. "Ya I think so." Like hell she would admit that strongly, better not to give too much information to Kurenai and Yugao.

"Well if he is a good person then, that's great." Kurenai smiled warmly.

"Well, is he good looking?" Yugao asked.

Flashback

_It was one of those days, when Naruto pranked one of the anbu hideouts, she would thank the kid later. He swapped the signboards of the bath houses. Anko came there because Yugao dragged her. When she and few other female members entered the bath house, they saw the males but her eyes were glued the scarred chunin, he had a semi-build tanned body but with his hair wet and down, he was looking like a rough warrior and all the scars in his body was enhancing that look; she almost jumped him. But the screaming and shouting stopped her from getting any more good view but she did stole a peek at his ass. Later she learned why he was there, one of the anbu invited Iruka because he looked after his kid. _

Flashback Ends

"_Damn right he is good looking, one of the sexiest ass I have ever seen."_ But she just shrugged.

"Well guess you should go for him." Kurenai asked, Anko just gaped at her when she heard that.

"What? I don't like him that much, I just found him interesting." She denied too quickly.

"Anko when we asked was he a good person, you had this very soft and admiring look on your face and when we asked about his looks, you were openly drooling." Yugao chuckled.

"Damn." Anko cursed her girlfriends for being so observant.

"So who is he?" Kurenai asked.

"He is a teacher."

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**There, all done.**

**There are some questions I will answer in the latter chapters,**

** Why Raiga seemed so close to Ranmaru?**

** How Hinata was able to subdue Naruto's chakra?**

** How can Naruto 'Feel' his friends?**

**The first two I might answer in the next chapter while the last two you guys have to wait a bit.**


	15. Chapter 15 : Team Five

**Hello everyone, been awhile. Sorry but I am on a vacation so it took a bit more time. I am not sure if I will post the next chapter before going back but I will try. *Becoming lazy on the break it seems***

_**Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto.**_

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Hiruzen was relaxing in his study room. Feeling the presence of the person he was waiting for, he called out, "Enter."

The door opened to reveal Yamato in his casual dress. "Thank you for coming Yamato." Yamato bowed.

It was right after the small dinner party they had, when everyone left to their own house Yamato had a different destination. While briefing earlier about the mission, Hiruzen gave small subtle signs about meeting later and he knew why, well he couldn't blame the old man for this but he sure was surprised when he figured that he would had to meet him in his home, which in some cases might be considered more private than the Hokage's office.

"I am pretty sure you know why I called you here late this night. It might take a while so why not relax yourself, Yamato." Hiruzen pointed at the chair in front of him. Yamato accepted the offer and sat there.

"So where should I start from, Sandaime-sama?" Yamato asked politely.

"Why not start from Naruto? I got worried when you said he pulled out a huge amount of Kyuubi's chakra, just how much did he pull?" Hiruzen asked.

"Chakra cloak." Hearing that Hiruzen paled, "I don't know how but he shouldn't be able to pull that much chakra and yet he did. I even asked our Sealing team to have a checkup on him and they said everything seemed to be in perfect condition." Hiruzen rubbed his temple, this was getting out of hand. He thought that maybe he ought to call Jiraiya to come back sooner.

"That is too much, you got any theory behind it?" Hiruzen asked while he took out his smoke.

"As far as I know, there are only a few ways that a jinchuriki can call out the beast's power despite the sealing. First would be death-like situations, when they feel like they might going to die despite the sealing the tailed beasts seemed to push out their chakra to the jinchuriki. I don't know the exact reason but it is not like the tailed beasts can die anyway. Second reason would be hate or rage, that ignites the chakra and the jinchurikis tend to pull out the chakra subconsciously." Yamato explained his thought.

"So we can say Naruto is following the second route unknowingly?" Hiruzen sighed.

"It is much more than that I think." Yamato said making the Sandaime concerned. "How so?"

"When Naruto is angry his bloodline seemed to respond to his rage as well, his storm attacks get more devastating and he doesn't act like a normal angry person." Hiruzen raised an eyebrow hearing this,

"What do you mean by that?"

"When people gets angry they tend to lash out at their opponents not thinking about themselves while becoming unaware about their surroundings with only one thing in mind, 'destroy the target at all cost.' But with all due respects Sandaime-sama you know that there is one more way people tends to act when they are angry." Hiruzen turned white hearing that, he almost dropped his pipe.

"You don't mean?" He voice was low as if he was afraid to hear the answer.

"Yes, the one that you dubbed as 'the silent anger'." Hearing that Hiruzen leaned on his chair and groaned, _"Like father like son."_

Everyone had their angry side, their dark side. The mighty Fourth was no exception. Hiruzen was able to witness his anger only once and when he did he was glad that Minato was a composed ninja. It was during the last war when a group of highly trained Iwa shinobi headed towards one of the Suna camp. Kushina and her team intercepted them but unexpectedly there was an S class shinobi there. Even though Kushina was a strong shinobi but at that time she was a high A class, most of her teammates were killed while others were able to retreat except her. She held them at bay but from what Hiruzen heard the S ranked Iwa shinobi was toying with her but before anything could happen Minato reached there.

Seeing Kushina's condition he snapped, he never learned what happened after that but when he reached there he was horrified to see the state all the Iwa shinobi were, death would have been a better option. They were mangled beyond healing but were kept alive. What scared him the most was the expression on Minato's face. There was a lingering smile on his lips while his face was calm and content; something he was glad that he didn't see twice.

"How many time did Naruto became like that?" Hiruzen asked tiredly.

"Two times, one was his fight with Neji and the second time was on the last mission when he went into chakra cloak mode." Hiruzen wanted to smack his head, 'the silent anger' as he dubbed was different that normal raging, unlike the normal state of angry mind this one acts differently. When they get really angry they became calm and collected rather than blind and raging, instead of killing their target they tend to toy with them and put fear and desperation in their mind while fighting with a calm mind.

"Do you have any idea why?" Although he knew the answer, he just wanted to be sure.

"Hinata." The reply confirmed his belief.

"Let's wait till Jiraiya comes, also speaking of Hinata what exactly happened, in the report it was said that she calmed down Naruto when he was in chakra cloak mode; do you have any ideas?"

"Nope, not a single clue." Hiruzen sweat-dropped hearing the answer.

"Then what about the person named No.5?"

"When I found him, he was beyond saving. Most of his bones were crushed and he was suffering heavily from internal bleeding. The only thing I could do was to end his misery. Although I took his weapons." He gave a scroll to Hiruzen, "It is sealed there, I do not trust it with the investigation department because Danzo might get his hand on this. What Hinata said that the guy was working as an undercover to get Raiga's swords, also I had a hunch for which village he was working for and it was solidified when I asked Ranmaru." Yamato looked a bit uncomfortable before answering,

"It was lightning country, before joining Raiga's group No.5 said he was a missing nin from Kumo, he even wanted to capture Hinata alive when he saw she was a main branch member."

"Those damn Kumo nins, for now keep the weapon here. I will see what I can do about it. And also did you test Ranmaru's bloodline?" Hokage took the weapon scroll and brought out the weapons.

"From the test what I can say is that his bloodline gives him the ability to see through walls, cast irresistible genjutsu which can even counter Byakugan. What he said to me that he can see the physical life force inside a human's body to check their status of being alive or dead. Also being able to see a person's life form he can predict a series of attacks that an opponent uses against him." Yamato explained.

"Are you thinking what I am thinking about his bloodline?" Hiruzen groaned.

"Although we cannot be sure at this point but yes I think so too, I also made sure the test results and everything else is hidden well and here is the only original copies." Yamato said while giving Hiruzen some notes.

"Things just seemed to get tougher when it comes to Naruto."

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**Next Morning**

Naruto was remodeling his room with the help of Haku and Ranmaru. The third Hokage decided it would be better if Ranmaru also lived with them, because of that they also rented the room next to them. They broke down the wall and combined the two rooms into one. Now they are remodeling the whole place.

Sometime later Hinata came, as their team had the day off, and started helping them. He wanted to use shadow clone but the girls decided against it saying it was better as they wanted to enjoy the group work.

"Guess you guys are working well together." Yamato said as he came through the broken door, "You guys are remodeling the whole apartment it seems."

"Ya, we are all making separate rooms for everyone." Naruto replied back while he was concentrating how to paint the wall without messing it up.

"Well there is something you guys should know," Yamato's words took everyone's attention, "As you know, you were made into a team but it is not official yet. In order to do that every team had to go through some kind of test, which I am going to follow as well. But this test will be unlike any other test so I will give the full team one week training time. You can use the training ground fifteen if you want but I won't be helping any of you, you are on your own. I will come and pick all of you up at the start of the next week at seven' o clock." With that he left.

"Wow a team test, did you had it too Hina-hime?" Naruto asked Hinata.

"Y-Yes Naruto-kun, it was right after our team was selected. We had to give a t-test in order to be an actual genin. It was h-hard but if it is you guys I know you will pass." Hinata replied with a smile.

"Did your Jonin instructor give time to prepare?" Haku asked.

"Yes, Kurenai-sensei gave us a day to prepare." Hinata told Haku.

"A day? And Yamato-sensei is giving us a week, this sounds troubling." Haku said thoughtfully.

"Nah, we will be fine; because we rock!" Naruto said while bumping fist in the air.

"Maybe because Naruto-nii-san and Haku-nee-chan is already strong so he wants me to have enough time to be prepared?" Ranmaru gave his opinion.

Everyone looked at him.

"I guess we should start training as soon as we can." Haku pointed out while she went to get her gears.

"Hey, Hina-hime; would you mind if we you come with us? I will let my clones do all the work here." Naruto asked Hinata with puppy-dog eyes. Hinata smiled and replied that she would love to and that she would have gone anyway.

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**Training Ground**

"_This doesn't feel right. From what Hinata-chan told me the Jonin instructors take the exam mainly to see the teamwork and the student's capabilities. Why does Yamato-sensei want us to go through the test now? Is it just for Ranmaru or there is something more?"_ Haku was thinking deeply while looking at Naruto who was teaching Ranmaru about the 'body flicker' jutsu. She talked a bit more about the test with Hinata and that got her thinking.

"Hinata-chan is it ok if you help Ranmaru with something?" Haku asked Hinata who was going through some taijutsu scrolls.

"Sure, Haku-chan. How can I help?" Hinata asked without looking away from the scroll.

"Something doesn't feel right about this test so I want Ranmaru to be ready for anything. I will ask Naruto to teach him the basic jutsu while you teach him enough taijutsu to defend himself. I will work on his chakra and _powers._" Haku explained her plan for the test.

"Only if you would spar with me sometimes like you do with Naruto." Hearing that Haku raised her eyebrow but Hinata just giggled softly.

"Alright, I also wanted to go against your taijutsu." Haku grinned.

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Few Days Later

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For few days they had been training Ranmaru to the fullest, but from time to time Naruto and Haku would spar with each other to sharpen their skills as well.

First it was Naruto who had been teaching Ranmaru the basic jutsu Kawarimi, Shunshin and Clone jutsu. He even took him to Iruka's place one day to give Ranmaru a better idea of the jutsu but for some reason he looked tired a bit. Iruka was pleased to have a student who for once was listening to him intently and was asking decent questions. It didn't take much long for Ranmaru to learn the three basic jutsu, although they were easy but the time he needed to master the jutsu was incredible. According to Iruka he was complete opposite of Naruto. Ranmaru had less chakra but more control and focus, much like a Hyuuga, so for him learning any jutsu that required small amount of chakra was easy for him. After learning those Naruto wanted him to learn more jutsu but Haku told him to keep on training him on that area as he needed experience with the jutsu.

After that it was Haku's turn who helped Ranmaru on the chakra control with the help of Hinata. Surprisingly he managed to complete the tree-climbing exercise in two days but he was stuck with the water-walking one. Haku also trained him with his abilities, she was not sure if it was bloodline or not because even Hinata never heard of any kind of bloodline like that. His genjutsu was unique but unfortunately not everyone was good with genjutsu and the only person who could teach him was busy with her own team. Ranmaru's second ability was a bit like Sharingan but instead of seeing the chakra to predict an opponent's attack he saw life-force. And also there was the fact that Ranmaru himself didn't know the full capabilities of his own powers. So after the chakra exercise what Haku did was to make Ranmaru go through all the things that he learned from Raiga.

Lastly it was Hinata but she didn't have too much time on her hand as she was busy with her own team and clan. Even though with all of these complications, she came and taught Ranmaru about taijutsu from time to time. But from what she saw was that Ranmaru was more like a strategist than front liner, he was not good with taijutsu heck he was not good in physical prowess. Seeing that Hinata just gave him some light exercise for him to perform regularly so that his body could be more durable and taught him some basics of a simple taijutsu form, the crane style.

They just had two more days left for their test. Haku went to have a spar match against Hinata while Naruto and Ranmaru went to see Iruka only to find the reason behind Iruka's tiredness. That was something Naruto and Ranmaru would never forget. After that they went back to the training ground to have some simple spars. But Naruto had to admit, Ranmaru's genjutsu was one pain in the ass; he was glad that Ranmaru was on his team.

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**Day of the Test**

Naruto, Haku and Ranmaru landed on an unknown training ground led by Yamato who came early at the morning to pick them up. But the whole way he didn't say anything. After reaching their destination they met an Anbu in the clearing who was wearing a cloak to hide his mask and hair.

Finally Yamato broke the silence, "Well I know you are all nervous but try to be at ease. Every team before forming had a test to prove if they are capable enough. Even though I know you all are more than capable I still want all of you to go through this. The test is simple, I will give you an item and this Anbu who will go by 'Alpha' will try to track you down and retrieve it. Your job is to have the item in your position till sunset. You will have only ten minutes head start. Any questions?"

"What will happen if we lose?" Haku asked.

"Then instead of forming as a real team we will still be going as the backup team. By the way, you are allowed to go all out but you cannot exit this training ground, no need to worry as this is one huge training ground so don't panic and follow your intuitions. Good luck." With that Yamato jumped back indicating that the test is about to start.

The mysterious Anbu threw a scroll at them, Naruto took the scroll and was carefully watching the Anbu. The atmosphere was tense and it became more so when the Anbu raised his arm.

Then he snapped his fingers.

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Five Minutes Later

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One of Naruto's clones was carrying Ranmaru on his back as all of them were dashing to go deeper into the woods. "Yamato-sensei is right, this is one huge training ground. Didn't thought there would be small forest here?" Naruto asked while he was checking out the area.

"Everyone, stop." Haku said while she stopped running.

"What's wrong Haku-nee?" Ranmaru asked.

"Guys I think the main objective is different than what Yamato-sensei told us." Haku told everyone.

"What do you mean by that? We got the scroll and we don't have time until that Anbu catches us." Naruto argued.

"Exactly, remember what Yamato-sensei told us, follow our intuition. I think the main objective is not to protect the scroll but _what measures _we take to protect it. Yamato-sensei said we can go full power meaning that the Anbu who is following us is quite strong. So we have to decide what we should do." Haku explained.

"So you are telling us whether we stand and fight with all we got or pull put every technique from our arsenal to avoid him at all cost." Naruto summarized Haku's explanation.

"But this is an Anbu we are talking about and maybe an elite one." Ranmaru pointed out.

"Exactly, so that is why I am saying not to take half-measures. Either we hide or we fight. So what do you guys think?" Haku looked at her teammates.

Naruto and Ranmaru looked at each other and then back at Haku.

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Ten Minutes Later

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'Alpha' was tracking his targets, their traces led him to a somewhat an open field in the forest. When he arrived in the field he was immediately attacked by three Naruto.

"_So they are going for a frontal attack." _

'Alpha' intercepted them with taijutsu, he ducked and rushed to head-butt one Naruto who received the full attack and went 'poof'. The other two surrounded him and one went for his chest and the other went for his leg. 'Alpha' jumped to dodge the lower attack while he kicked the other Naruto on the head to counter his flying attack. But while he was on the air he heard a slight screeching sound and all his senses went on high alert. He swapped with the Naruto he kicked and saw him getting pierced by an lightning charged kunai, he jumped to dodge another one but when he landed the last Naruto held his legs and the third kunai came right at his face, he ducked with immense speed but his cloak got torn apart by that revealing his mask and hair. He took out his kunai and cut the last clone.

"Nice strategy I must say. Charging with clones while you guys attack me from far." 'Alpha' praised their effort, "So I guess instead of running, all of you decided to face me head on?"

"Well running around while removing all our traces till sunset sounded boring so why not just face the problem directly? Besides even if we lose the test in the end we will all be in the same team, whether it is on an actual team or the backup team, doesn't matter to us." Naruto pointed out after coming out from the forest. Haku and Ranmaru came after him and stood beside him.

"Beside it seems we took the right choice, eh Kakashi-sensei? There was no way we could have outsmarted you regarding on tracking." Haku grinned.

"Wait…..How?" Kakashi stumbled on his words.

"I wasn't travelling with Zabuza-sama just for show you know. While it was true I usually avoided direct fights I was taught to look underneath the underneath. The fact that Yamato-sensei told us to go all out means me and Ranmaru can use our bloodlines which we are supposed to hide, only a handful of people knows about that." Haku explained.

"Wow nicely done. Guess …." Before Kakashi could finish,

"Also the fact that no one else has gravity-defying silver hair also solidified my theory." Hearing that Kakashi slumped his shoulders.

"The hair gave me away didn't it?" Kakashi asked in a dejected tone.

All three nodded.

"Well guess I won't need this mask anymore." With that Kakashi removed his mask and looked directly at them, he was wearing a blank headband which was covering his Sharingan-eye like usual. "So let's start shall we?"

No sooner had he said, Naruto made five shadow clone and all of them charged at him and seeing that Kakashi jumped back to get some distance. Yamato told him not to hold back and knowing these kids he knew Yamato was right. Kakashi knew who to target first. But when he looked at their team he was surprised and pleased at the same time. Naruto was in front who already had drawn Kiba while Haku and Ranmaru kept their distance from Naruto. Ranmaru was weak he knew it but with Haku beside him things got harder. Even though he knew in taijutsu he could easily overcome Haku but wouldn't risk it as she was good with senbons and ninjutsu. Also he was not sure if he could pass Naruto without using his Sharingan.

"Guess I have to go serious as well." With that Kakashi strengthen his stance.

"Kirigakure no jutsu." Kakashi made his move, slowly the area was filled with thick mist. He knew shaking off Haku would be hard but one on one he would easily win. Even though he said he was going all out he was still a Jonin so he had to hold back a bit.

With that in mind he made one shadow clone who went to one side but made some small noise on purpose, all the clones heard that and followed him. Seeing the chance he shunshined close to where Haku and Ranmaru was and dashed towards Ranmaru but when he was close his eyes widened when he heard both Haku and Ranmaru grinned and shouted together, "Hyoton: Showering snow."

Kakashi took the hit full on. It was as if even his bones were shivering, but before he could take any measure he felt two of the shadow clone coming at him. Seeing that one dived to get his leg he jumped and saw the other clone jumped as well, but before Naruto could use that clone to jump higher and use his attack Kakashi threw shrunken to dispel it.

"Damn." Naruto cursed seeing he missed a good chance to get a strong hit on Kakashi.

Kakashi landed a bit far away from them, he could still feel his body shaking. Suddenly it hit him, he checked the surrounding to be sure, the mist was getting thicker and one could feel the water in the air. He knew who and why increased the moist in the air but before he could use anything to countermeasure it he heard Naruto yelling, "Storm Release: Laser Circus."

Naruto didn't use full power on the attack as it was meant to charge up the entire place to trap Kakashi who felt the whole area getting electrified because of the heavy moisture. He didn't waste any time and started making the hand seals,

Ox Rabbit Monkey Dragon Rat Bird Ox Snake Dog Tiger Monkey

"Chidori." He used his signature move to draw the lightning to his jutsu rather than his body which worked but the lightning was strong, it started spreading from his hand. He charged up his attack with surrounding lightning and smashed it to the ground. The area shook because of the impact. The mist started to clear up, he had to move away but he felt his body was feeling heavy.

"Weird." He looked at his body and to his surprise there were many needles sticking out.

"Guess this was your plan from the beginning, huh?" Kakashi asked Naruto who was now standing few meters ahead of him with his Kiba out.

"Yup, while you were busy trying to get to Ranmaru or fighting me off 'real' Haku-nee was hitting you with needles and because of the mist you couldn't pinpointed her location without Sharingan and the frost attack that hit you numbed your body so you didn't feel the needles hitting you. And now that you are all worn out I am pretty sure you don't want to go head on with me on Kenjutsu." Naruto cheekily replied, what he didn't tell him was that Ranmaru was pinpointing Kakashi's location to Haku through the thick mist.

"Don't count me out yet. I am not a Jonin for nothing." Saying his part Kakashi toughened his stance, Naruto took his stance as well but to his surprise Kakashi loosened up.

"Well guess this means all of you pass the test." Kakashi said with a smile.

"Huh, what do you mean?" Naruto said surprised.

"Well from here your sensei will take over and I am pretty sure he will be here soon." True to his words, in less than a minute Yamato came there. Seeing Yamato, Haku and Ranmaru came out from the forest.

"You guys did really well. You don't know but this forest is actually for observing duels between Chunin for the promotion to elite Chunin. So the whole battle I was able to observe and I must say I am really impressed the way all of you used your strong points while covering each other's weaknesses. And your hunch was right I gave this test to see what measures you would take to complete a tough mission without me." Yamato said with a proud voice. Everyone beamed up hearing that.

"Guess all I can say now is that…

Welcome to Team Five."

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**OMAKE**

The Aftermath

"Best night ever." Anko grinned but Iruka only grumbled, after all this time last night she was finally able to bag Iruka, although with underhanded methods. "Come on baby, we both enjoyed it so don't be grumpy rather you should be proud of taking the virginity of one of the most sexist Kunoichi." Anko laughed, "Or are you telling me that you will leave this poor girl right after ravaging her, you monster." Anko sniffed but she knew she wasn't fooling anyone.

"I ravaged you? Then please tell me why I am here in bed groaning while you are practically glowing and enjoying yourself." Iruka finally replied, "Were the snakes necessary?" He asked in a tired tone.

"Duh, you won't go down quietly I mean come on, I was practically naked and pinned you down; but no you and your moral. I know you like me so what kept you?" Anko's jolly voice was replaced by a concerned one. Doubts started to fuel her minds, what if she messed up big time?

"Anko, yes I was attracted to you; I mean you are powerful as well as a beautiful Kunoichi and anyone would be lucky to have you. I didn't wanted you to be rash since I thought that the crush you had for me would pass away eventually because if you wanted you could have found a better man. I am just a regular average Chunin, I was sure someone like you….." He couldn't finish because Anko pounced on him.

"That's it! We are going for another session." Anko said huskily.

"Wait! Didn't you hear what I said?" Iruka flipped so Anko was under him but before she could comment about their position he jumped out of the bed but wobbled when landed, well it was understandable when their first night was so long and rough.

"Iruka-kun, you won me over for your kindness and honesty, something that is rare in our world. So just like you think that I can get better men, I fear the same. So let us put our fear and doubts aside because knowing you I can sincerely say that _I am _the lucky one." Anko said all this in sincere voice but sighed when she saw Iruka was backing down slowly.

"Fine have it that way, summoning jutsu." Anko grinned evilly.

"NOOOOO! Not the snakes again." Iruka tried to run away but his legs were caught by Anko's snakes.

"Stop your whining, I don't see you complaining when we are actually doing it, heck you act total hundred eighty degree opposite. Now be a good boy and put your mouth to a better use."

"_Will I even survive the first day?" _

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**Finally Done.**

**About the Omakes, they are the fun parts of the actual story. Kind of like some funny side-events, if you guys want to see any particular events on the Omake tell me, I try to make them accordingly if it doesn't clash with the actual story.**

**Alright guys I already named Naruto's bloodline now it is time for Ranmaru, I was thinking something like "Crimson eyes" or something alike. **

**What do you guys think?**


	16. Chapter 16 : Strength and Weakness

**Hello there everyone, it's been some time; kinda busy here with new semester and other stuffs.**

**Revised the chapters till 11 and damn it took more time than I thought, hope I can post sooner from now on.**

**Buterflypuss, ZyiareHellsing, FinalKingdomHearts, Hee-Ho Master – Thanks**

**thor94: I am not gonna use clone spamming like normal but I will try to make them more unique and I will probably focus on his kenjutsu and ninjutsu, hope you like them**

**melamariannie: yes Iruka is very lucky but let us hope he can survive Anko's onslaught.**

**Drannakka: Hmm, nice name you got there. Also nice way to break down his abilities, I got another surprise about Ranmaru's bloodline but you just have to wait and see.**

**Ryuujin96: Thanks. Unique name for the bloodline. I wanted to put Ranmaru here because like many people he had lots of potential to show unique stuffs but was just pushed aside. So I want to see what I can do with him.**

**InfernalDrinoxian: Now won't that be a scene.**

**Selior: Thanks, I try to balance it out but still not sure if the fights are too quick or not. About NaruHina, wait and see my friend.**

**Simonisdovakiin: I know I am two weeks late but still - **

**Happy Birthday Naruto**

_**Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto.**_

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"Let me say it again, Congratulation on making it to the new team." Yamato smiled softly.

It was next day after the test, Yamato treated them to a nice restaurant for doing so wonderful in the test. Now they were on training ground fifteen for their first official meeting as 'Team Five'. Excitement was written on everyone's faces.

"Before starting our today's main discussion I want to give you guys some warnings." Hearing that everyone became more focused, "For Haku and Ranmaru, you had to follow the same codes like before. Haku, no ice jutsu unless tough calls and same for Ranmaru, we still don't know full power of Ranmaru's abilities and we never heard of any bloodlines like that. So you have to be extra careful, you can use your genjutsus Ranmaru but be more discreet about it." Haku and Ranmaru nodded, "For Naruto, you can use everything else except Kiba."

"What? Why?" Naruto protested with a frown.

"Because Kiba is a valuable asset in Kiri, if anyone learns that you have one of the mist swords, you will become a target of many dangerous people. So unless the situation is dire, do not use Kiba. I know it is not fair but until you are strong enough to fully utilize Kiba you have to follow this Naruto." Yamato explained to Naruto who was clearly depressed.

"Now with that out of the way there is one more thing I want to ask you guys. You guys know about Chunin exam, right? Well guess what? This year it will be held here in Konoha. So do you guys want to participate in it?" Yamato asked even though he knew the answer.

"Of course, Yamato-sensei."

"I think it will give us a great experience."

"If Naruto-nii and Haku-nee goes so will I."

"Well I knew all of you would say yes but still wanted to confirm. Now the exam will be held at the end of the next month meaning you guys have less than two months to prepare yourself. I would suggest no more mission, only strict training. With that comes our today's discussion. I will be direct, being a chunin means you got to have experience, strength and the ability to lead. Experience means you got to have _mission experience_ as well as different kinds of battle experience so if anytime a mission goes south you know what to do. Strength is something you need because when you become a Chunin you will be doing high level missions, sometimes you might have to go with Jonin to help them out as well. You cannot do any of these unless you don't have power to back you up in the battle. And the last one, the ability to lead means you got to have skills to lead a team when one is assigned to you and also you need to be quick-witted and crafty for that. You guys still with me?" Yamato asked.

Seeing everyone nodding back with vigor, he continued, "Now as for you guys, Ranmaru, I will be direct, you are the weakest link in the team,_ for now._ You don't have enough experience on the field and as for strength you have high potential but you have to train hard to sharpen them also you are too young and green for leading. Naruto, I can say you are quite experienced as a genin. And in the strength department you might be one of the toughest genin I have come around. But you still lack on the leadership area, you have a tendency to charge at the battle without properly evaluating the situation. And Haku, truthfully I would say you already have all the three areas covered. You are experienced, smart and strong kuniochi. But there is always room for improvement." Yamato explained.

He continued, "So what I want you guys to do now is to discuss with one another about your own strengths and weaknesses and what can you do to contribute in the team. Also decide which area you want to improve and how you plan to do that for the upcoming exam? Take your time, I will meet you after lunch." With that he left.

"So, ramen anyone?"

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**After Lunch**

After their lunch at Ichiraku's, they went back to the training ground all the while discussing about the given topic. They didn't have to wait long for Yamato.

"So, did you discuss among yourselves about what I told you?" Seeing them all smiling and nodding, he grinned, "Then let's start with Naruto, what are your weaknesses, strengths and how do you want to become stronger? Let's not forgot your contribution towards your team."

Naruto rubbed the back of head, "Hmm, for my awesome sides, I am strong at lightning jutsus and Kenjutsu, also I can use shadow clones in lots of ways, I can even use them in information gathering. Also my bloodline 'Storm Release' packs quite a punch but I am still working on it. As for weaknesses, I am not good at countering strong genjutsu, also not good in hardcore strategic battles I suppose. As for the team, I can be the heavy damage dealer and the front liner. To get stronger, I want to focus on Kenjutsu and on my bloodline techniques. Guess that's all for me."

"Nicely said Naruto, so who wants to go next?" Yamato questioned the other two. Ranmaru stepped up and seeing that Yamato motioned him to go on.

"Well for starters, I am not experienced in shinobi battles as much as Naruto-nii and Haku-nee but my strength lies in my unique abilities, I can cast some strong genjutsu and I am working on tracking. My main weakness is my inexperience and also the lack of knowledge on shinobi arts. I want to be the genjutsu expert and tracker on our team." Ranmaru said with determined voice which relived Yamato as he thought that his earlier speech might have diminished Ranmaru's spirit. He was glad that it didn't.

"Yes Ranmaru, you need time and experience and with that I am sure you can be as good as your other teammates. So, Haku; it is your turn." Yamato said to Haku who smiled back.

"Let's see, for my strong points; I am good with water jutsu, senbons and I am quite well versed with my bloodline abilities. I also have some decent experience in medical field and information gathering. For tracking my knowledge is limited but I don't want to pursue more on that particular field. As for my weaknesses, I am not good with long stamina consuming battles, also I am kind of weak in close-range battles. As for the strategic types of battles I am not sure of it. For our team I want to be the secondary fighter and medic, also;" She looked at her other teammates both of them just grinned at her, seeing that she just sighed, "I will be the team leader," Haku said unhappily.

"So you got outvoted?" Yamato chuckled, Haku replied by nodding.

"Oh and for getting stronger I would like to focus on improving my water jutsu and getting better at close combat. As I am _forced_ to be the leader, I also want to focus on team formation and strategies." Haku finished her part with a smile.

"Wow, honestly speaking I am very surprised and pleased. You really analyzed your abilities as a single shinobi and team player. Well the main reason I asked all of you to do this is that, like I said before, we are not going for any more missions till the Chunin exam is finished. This is no joke, people dies in the exam and I will be damned if I sent any of you there unprepared. So for the next one and a half month I will be training every one of you. And hearing how you want to get stronger gave me some ideas as well, _if _I can I will try to ask some of my colleagues to come and help you as well but don't hold onto it. Because of the Chunin exam, the higher ranked shinobis got their hands full with works. But I will try my best." Yamato finished with a small smile, his eyes were glowing with pride seeing the maturity of his students.

"So which areas are you going to train us?" Haku asked.

"Well let's see, for now to keep it simple I will train each of you only in one particular area, like for Naruto I will focus on his bloodline, for Ranmaru I will work on his basics and improve his tracking skills and lastly for Haku we will concentrate on your water jutsu. Other areas I can't do much as I am not expert on those parts." Yamato explained.

"So training starts from today?" Naruto asked curiously.

"No. I actually thought the discussion would have taken more time but guess I was wrong. We can do some light exercise and have a bit more brief planning of our training program." Yamato replied.

"Ah, alright." Naruto said.

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**After Few Hours Later**

All the members of team five were resting, it was a light workout but they planned out their training schedule. From early morning till afternoon Yamato will train them altogether on respective areas till the exam; rest of the day was up to them. Naruto started working on his new storm release jutsu while Haku was concentrating more on water based jutsu. Yamato gave Ranmaru more time than others as he needed it; he sparred with him and also went through the basics. He also checked what Ranmaru knew about tracking.

"This is it for today guys. From tomorrow come here at 7 sharp. We will train till lunch time. Don't worry we will have our breakfast break." He added the last part when he saw Naruto was going to interrupt him. With that everyone bid farewell to Yamato.

After Yamato left, Naruto spoke first, "Yo everyone, want to go to Iruka-sensei's place? Maybe we can ask him if he knows someone who can help us with our training."

"Sure, Naruto-nii." Ranmaru replied in a happy voice as he came to like Iruka as well.

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Iruka's Place

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"So when is Iruka-sensei coming?" Naruto asked.

After coming to Iruka's place they were greeted by a grumpy Anko, who without hearing anything, pulled them inside the house. Then they started having discussions or more like listening to Anko's nagging about how Iruka was being a jerk who was not giving enough time to his girlfriend. The story went like this, because it was almost end of the academy year Iruka was busy grading his students and also for the chunin exam he had to partake on some works. So for the past _few days_ Iruka was not coming back at home where Anko was _eagerly _waiting for him after her stressful days. She also had her hands full because of the exam and it was driving her mad. And for reliving her pressure she needed her man, 'God damn it!'

"Never mind the insensitive bastard. So what are you all here for?" Anko somberly asked. Seeing that they were stuck with an agitated Anko, they explained their situation of how they had to train and how they needed help with some special areas and for which they were looking for Iruka's help if he knew anyone who could help them.

Anko was listening leisurely but suddenly a thought hit her, "_Iruka will probably have work tonight as well but if I can get these kids to take his loads off him, then he will be free and, wait maybe I can make these kids agree to do his works for few days….."_ Anko started laughing manically scaring others, after a while her laughter died down.

"Alright kids, I can help you out with your little _sensei_ problem but you have to do something for me." Anko chirpily said.

"How can you help with our problem, Anko-san?" Haku asked.

"Moreover what do you want us to do?" Naruto asked with concern as he knew Anko from before.

"Hold your pants, brats. Let me make it short, from what I learned that Blondie needs a kenjutsu expert, chibi needs a genjutsu expert and miss leader wants to learn strategies. I know people who can help you with your problems, trust me they are good. As for what I want is simple, just take the load off from Iruka for few days so he can concentrate on what he is supposed to do." Anko finished with a predatory grin. Everyone felt sorry for Iruka but hearing what Anko said they knew they had no choices. Haku looked at her teammates both of whom just nodded unhappily.

"Alright you got a deal. So where can we find Iruka-sensei?"

Anko's grin just grew wider.

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**With Iruka**

Iruka had to sort out the academy works. Because of the exam, they thought of giving the students some days off. But suddenly Naruto and his teammates came and told him that they would take over his work for few days. When he asked why Haku replied that it was a D rank mission _specifically _for them. At first he didn't have any idea what was exactly going on but when he returned to his home and was immediately pounced by an excited Anko, everything just clicked. Not that he minded any of that on the contrary he would _never_ get tired of his hot girlfriend but sometimes Anko….

"Hey Iruka-kun, I just bought some new lingerie but they are kinda tight, will you help me loosen them up, please?" Anko asked innocently.

"S-Sure, I w-would love to." Iruka gulped, one way or another he would have a long tiring night but he knew he was going to enjoy this way more.

_If you can't beat it, enjoy it._

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With Team Five

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Sorting out Iruka's work didn't take that long because of the infamous 'Shadow Clone'. After that they went to their training ground to improve their team-chemistry. When they reach there it was almost evening, they decided they would train till dinner time. Ranmaru was practicing water walking, while Haku was fighting with few of Naruto's clone to improve her taijutsu. Meanwhile Naruto was meditating, to outsider it seemed like that but actually he was having a conversation with one of his tenant.

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Inside Naruto's Mindscape

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"What? Why?" Naruto loudly asked.

"**There is something I must confirm, Naruto; that is why I need to go back. I don't know how long I will be gone but it may be few weeks. With all the trainings you will be going through I think you need a bit breathing room for some time."** Raiju replied with a small smile.

"Is it really necessary for you to go?" Naruto asked dejectedly.

"**How about this, Naruto? After I return I will see your growth and if I find it satisfactory I will teach you a true storm jutsu. Will that be ok?"** Raiju asked with a grin already knowing what his answer would be.

"Ok but make sure you can make it before the exam. I don't want you to miss all the ass-kicking I will be doing." Naruto replied back.

"**I will try but no promises and don't slack off because I am not here."** Raiju chuckled.

Naruto finally smiled.

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Outside World

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Haku was taking a rest because fighting 3 of Naruto's dense shadow clone was no joke. And as more time was passing by, coordination between his clones were improving greatly. She knew her taijutsu sucked and the battle she had with Hinata showed her that she really needed to improve that area. She looked at Ranmaru to see that he was till practicing water walking. She had no idea of what Anko had in store for them but all she could hope it would be good. After a while Naruto was done with his meditation and took his leave saying that he had to meet Hinata, Haku and Ranmaru just laughed lightly. But before going Naruto dispelled his previous clones and made new ones for Haku to train with them. A bit later Ranmaru got exhausted so he was chatting with Naruto's clones whereas Haku started training alone. She was practicing 'Hyoton: Ice clone' because her clone was slow and not as sturdy as Naruto's dense clone. She also had to use small genjutsu on them to look like her. She wanted to fix all of those problems before the exam. Suddenly a presence was felt and without thinking she threw her senbons at that place and took her stance. The figure jumped to dodge the senbons and landed in a safe distance from her.

She panicked realizing that whoever it was saw her bloodline, _"How could I be so careless?"_ She berated herself.

The figure approached her and seeing the face she paled more.

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**With Naruto**

While Naruto was sitting in Ichiraku's place waiting for his princess, he was rethinking his steps he had to take before entering the exam. His new original storm release attack was almost ready, some advice from Yamato and Raiju helped him to fix a few problems and now he needed a month or two to complete it. Also he was hoping if Anko could really find someone to teach him in kenjutsu, he might got Kiba but he knew after watching Zabuza's fight that he needed to improve his kenjutsu by a lot. For the time being he would concentrate on these two areas. He didn't want to think too much because he was still feeling down because of Raiju's depart.

Someone entered the place and to Naruto's delight it was Hinata, the day couldn't be that bad now that he would be able to enjoy his time with her.

"Umm, Naruto-kun; are you doing anything tonight?" Hinata meekly asked.

This day might be _good _after all, "Nah I am completely free, nothing to do at all." Naruto eagerly replied back.

"Then can you come to my house? My father wants to meet you." Hinata told Naruto nervously.

Scratch that, the day was becoming worse by the minute. Suddenly Naruto's mind started showing just _how much_ work he had to do but alas! His big mouth already told Hinata that he was completely _free_. Now he got no choice but to go.

Gulping, Naruto nodded his head.

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**Done but sorry for the short chapter, hope can make it up to you guys on the next ones.**

**About Ranmaru's Bloodline, let the voting again (please if you have unique names do tell)**

**Red Eye – Satori (drannakka)**

**Soul/Spirit Eye – Reigan (Ryuujin96)**

**Crimson Eyes – dunno how the say in Japanese, **

**Till then, Later**


	17. Chapter 17 : Not Alone

**Hello guys, been a while. Well Naruto is over so was feeling down for a while. It was one of my childhood friend. Going to miss him, even though the ending felt rushed was quite happy with it.**

**For few weeks I might be irregular as the workload from my university increased, but I will try to post chapters as soon as I can. **

**For all those rated and reviewed the story, Thank You. **

**Even though Naruto is over, let the will of fire keep on going through our hearts.**

_**Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto.**_

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Naruto was getting more and more nervous by the minute as he was closing in towards the Hyuuga compound. He wasn't nervous because he was meeting the head of one of the strongest and noble clan in Konoha but because he was meeting with his girlfriend's father who held the fate of their relationship. He would do everything in his power if her father turned out to be one of his _haters._ He didn't know the man that much but from the small exchange they had when Hinata was fighting to prove her powers he knew he was not the _friendly_ type, that's for sure. Naruto was glad that he was able to come up with a quick plan to make sure he didn't mess this up in any way. Without knowing he was holding and squeezing Hinata's hand who understood her boyfriend's nervousness.

As they closed in towards the compound, the guards in the gate were a bit surprised to see their shy heiress boldly holding hands with the village pariah went inside the compound as if this was her usual routine. But truthfully Hinata was also nervous. Few hours back out of nowhere her father said that he wanted to meet Naruto and she had a feeling in her gut that Hiashi knew about her and Naruto but she didn't know how. Now seeing Naruto being _that much _nervous, she was trying to remain calm because if he saw Hinata was also nervous that would _definitely _not going to help him.

She led Naruto to her father's study room first to inform him of her boyfriend's arrival.

"Father, I have bought Naruto-san with me." She informed her father of their presence while being as formal as she could.

"Enter." Hearing the stoic voice, Hinata looked at Naruto and smiled to assure him that nothing would happen, at least that's what she hoped. She opened the door and led Naruto inside.

They entered and when Naruto and Hiashi's eyes met, Naruto bowed slightly. After that he followed Hinata and sat in front of her father.

"Uzumaki-san, firstly I would like to thank you." Hinata and Naruto was surprised, Hiashi relaxed his posture and continued, "After the training week my daughter had with you, she started to progress a lot, both in physical and mental wise. Although few elders and main house members still don't want to acknowledge it, but I would like to see how far Hinata's new gentle fist style will go. Will it stand toe to toe against our traditional style or can it even surpass that? I would like to see that." Hinata was dumbfounded, did her father just acknowledged her efforts indirectly which she was yearning for years. She was doing her best not let the tears of happiness show although every part of her body wanted to hug her father and to say 'thank you' while crying.

Unbeknownst to Hinata, she and Naruto was the hot topic among the Hyuuga, both in main and branch houses, after their demonstration at the dojo months back. Naruto was like a dark horse, no one expected him to beat the Hyuuga prodigy and the most shocking part was that he beat Neji in less than a minute. Some said it was because Neji was weakened cause of the fight with Hinata but the elders didn't say anything, because if they said that it was because of Hinata than it would seem that Hinata was able to injure Neji with her own style _after_ beating her sister. And if they would deny that theory than it would seem the village outcast was able to beat their gentle fist genius like he was a third-rate shinobi. So although outraged they remained silent.

As for Hinata, even though main house members and few branch members seemed her as a weak and timid girl, most of the branch members liked her cause of her kindness. But after spending time with Naruto, she started to come out of her shell while maintaining her kind and gentle nature. Because of that even villagers started to notice her kindness and along with the little incident in the Capital, and because Hanabi was not _officially_ named as the Hyuuga heiress, villagers gave her the nickname 'The princess of Konoha'. Because of that she started to gain positive attentions from the main house as well.

Hiashi even had Ko to follow Hinata to monitor her training and the report surprised him. He even started to notice how hard Hinata was working _even_ staying in the compound and felt slightly proud of her daughter when he saw how she was doing all the training undetected. He would occasionally made Hinata spar with other members. Although Hinata never used her own style again but he was still able to notice the slight changes, she was more flexible and she was able to hit and defend at the same time because of her flexibility. He really wanted to see her daughter's full potential but he knew he couldn't just ask her after all he had done.

Every time he saw Hinata now, pride and guilt would fill the man's heart in an instant.

"So I would like to ask you to keep _training_ with my daughter." Yes he was proud of his daughter and was thankful towards Naruto for bringing her out of her shell _but_ dating her was a different subject. That's why he stretched the word 'training' to let Naruto know that he was _only_ approving of their training time. He narrowed his eyes slightly and continued, "Is there anything you would like to say, Uzumaki-san.?"

"_Yes a lot, you stuck-up old man."_ That's the first thought that came to Naruto but he shook it off and pushing his nervousness away he looked straight at the man.

"Hiashi-sama, Hinata was a wonderful girl and shinobi from the start. Sometimes a small acknowledgement and few simple supportive words can do a lot than you think and that's all I gave her. '_Which was supposed to be your job,'_ And I am pretty sure after some time she can even kick yo… I mean she can surpass you." Naruto bit down the sarcasm that was itching to come out.

"I see." Was all the reply he got.

Naruto shook his head, "_Now or never."_ With that he abruptly stood up and to everyone's surprise he went down on his knees and banged his head in the floor.

"Please let me court your daughter, Hiashi-sama!"

Hiashi's eyebrows shot up and his mouth opened slightly, which was equivalent of jaw dropping for normal Hyuuga. Hinata thought that any more surprises and her heart would give out.

What none of them knew was that before coming undetected by Hinata, Naruto made quite a lot of shadow clones and told them to gather any information on how to handle the crisis. All the clones dashed and started the _mission_ as if the Kyuubi was on their ass. After overcoming some major and minor obstacles they were able to gather some good heads up like 'Show proper respect', 'Don't speak unless spoken to', 'DO NOT get overly familiar with the girl when her father is around' and last but not least 'DO NOT lie'.

Hiashi quickly composed himself and looked at Naruto raptly who still had his head on the ground. He already decided what he was going to do the moment he figured out that his girl was dating Naruto.

"Raise your head, Uzumaki-san." Naruto raised his head to meet Hiashi's eyes directly, "Like I said before, after spending some time with you my daughter improved greatly. So that is why for now I will _tolerate _your relationship with her. But if you truly want my permission to court my daughter openly than show me what you can do. You can do that in the Chunin exam. You are joining it, aren't you?"

Naruto nodded while he properly sat down once again.

"So we shall see what you are capable of doing, Naruto Uzumaki. You can leave now." Naruto and Hinata nodded and went for the door.

"One more thing, I don't mind both of you spending time together but keep in mind if I _sense_ or _hear_ of you doing anything inappropriate to my daughter, you won't even have the chance to join the exam, do I make myself clear." Hiashi said it gently which frightened Naruto to no end who nodded vigorously.

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**Next Day**

Yamato stopped training his students when he felt few presences approaching them. To his surprise, it was Anko and few of her friends.

"Hello everyone, what brings you all here?" Yamato asked curiously.

"Well they are here for your brats, heard that they needed some extra helps so brought some of my friends." Hearing Anko's answer Yamato was genuinely surprised and pleased but he knew Anko wouldn't have done it for free, he was too worried to ask what she made his students do.

"Yo brats, just like I said here are some of my friends that are going to help you train, But! Few things keep in that small genin head of yours, they will help you for one month and each of them have some conditions themselves. Now the stage is all yours pals, I am outta here." With that Anko left before anyone could say otherwise.

"Let's get started, the sooner the better. My name is Morino Ibiki, currently the commanding officer of the Konoha Torture and Interrogation Force. I heard that the little ice princess over there needs some heads up on strategies, I will not waste any time so follow me. I hope that is ok with you Yamato-san." Ibiki said in a disinterest voice.

"Sure go ahead. But we will have a meeting at dinner time, be sure to be there." Yamato told Haku who nodded in response.

"Well with the tough guy gone, let's continue. My name is Yugao Uzuki and I am a kenjutsu specialist. I will train you Blondie but I want to see the new _toy _that you got recently." Yugao said in a calm voice, but both Naruto and Yamato tensed up when they got the meaning of the 'toy' she was speaking of.

"How did you know about that Yugao-san?" Yamato was a bit worried as the information was supposed to be confidential.

"You forgot I am one of the Hokage's personal bodyguards, I talked with him before coming here." Her answer eased up the student and teacher.

"Alright Yugao-sensei I will show you what I can do with my _toys._" Naruto grinned.

"Somehow that sounds inappropriate. Well, all of you guys know me already. I am Kurenai Yuhi and the Jonin sensei of Team Eight. Yamato-san, I will train Ranmaru as I also want to learn a bit more about a bloodline that focuses on genjutsu, but I also want your co-operation with this. I want you to train Hinata in her water affinity. She is progressing quite well and if you can train her alone I am sure she will do great." Kurenai spoke her part.

"Well, honestly I am quite surprised of what the kids did. And as for Hinata, it is fine by me. Last time I checked that girl was getting really good at water jutsu. Also don't hesitate to ask me if you want anything, same goes for you too Yugao-san. This will help my students' growth by a lot. I think we should cancel our training today, you guys should go with your respective new sensei to get to know each other. But remember, we are going to meet at Ichiraku's place at dinner time. Tell that to Haku for me." With that Yamato bowed to the ladies and then left.

"Shall we get going?" Yugao asked the remaining people of Team five.

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Ibiki and Haku

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Ibiki took Haku to the T&amp;I headquarters directly and led her to his office.

"Before we begin there are few things we should clarify. First I know about your _unique_ ability." Seeing Haku tensing up he raised his hand, "I went to Hokage's office after Anko came and told me about your little sensei problem, she added that if I want to train you first I have to talk with Hokage." Ibiki grunted, Anko outsmarted him by playing with his curious nature. When he confronted Sandaime, he agreed to tell Ibiki everything only if he got involved with the girl.

"Also I want to ask you something. I heard about your resolve and your feelings about your father, now what if, it's just a hypothetical question, your father Zabuza tells you to kill your friend or to commit some high level crime here in Konoha; what will you do?" Ibiki asked and looked at Haku with a calculated gaze.

Haku thought for a second, then she smiled softly, "Then I just have to beat my father and find out who is behind the scheme. Because with all the years I spent with him I know he has a bad reputation, he maybe heartless, _a bit_ bloodthirsty, a sword-maniac BUT he is definitely not a back-stabber unless he gets betrayed first. So I am sure after all the things Konoha did for him, he is not going to say maniacal things like that. If he did, then it must be because of a third party."

Ibiki was surprised, he thought she was going to say something along those lines but not so clearly and definitely not so fast. He assumed that the girl would panic and then she would try out with some far-fetched ideas not to blame Zabuza.

"Alright you pass. We can work out on your strategy and team-formation skills. But one last thing, is it possible for you to tell me some information about your time when you were traveling. You can skip the part where you don't want to tell. Just don't fabricate." Ibiki asked away his last question. In the Ninja world any little information would be a great asset. She spent a lot of time in Water-country where their spies were having lots of troubles.

Haku thought for a bit then she nodded.

"Great let's get started right away then."

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Yugao and Naruto

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"So where is this place?" Naruto asked as he was being led by Yugao to a whole new training ground. The odd part was he felt like there was something wrong at the entrance of the place but couldn't put his hand on it.

"Welcome to the training ground belonging to only Anbu." Yugao grinned, she led Naruto to this place right after they separated from the other duo. She wanted to test her skills against a mist sword. Because this was one in a life-time chance as Naruto was the only person who was able to get his hands on a legendary mist sword who was from a different village.

"Wow this place is where Anbu trains. Cool!" Naruto started to look around.

"Don't beat yourself kid, you won't find this place unless an authorized anbu brings you here." Yugao chuckled.

"What? Why? Is there something special you have to do?" Naruto started to beam up.

"Pipe down and about the _special_ thing, can't tell you kid. Maybe if you join Anbu anytime soon." Yugao ruffled Naruto's hair.

"Let's get started. The area is secured so you can go all out. And I _want _you to go all out. Bring out your blades and give me all you got. I want to see where you stand." Yugao took a relaxed stance but her senses became sharp.

Naruto grinned and took out a scroll to unseal the swords. Yamato gave him a special scroll with a retreat and tracker seal attached to it to seal the Kiba inside.

He wielded the twin swords and took his stance.

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Kurenai and Ranmaru

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Kurenai couldn't help but chuckle inwardly when she saw Ranmaru's behavior, he was just like Hinata, shy and lacking self-confidence but had full of potential. Hinata was just like that before but recently her growth made Kurenai to think that she might be the strongest in her team. Although much of her growth was thanks to her boyfriend, no deny there.

"So, Ranmaru-kun; before we start training I want you to tell me a bit about yourself, your life before and after we meet. Don't worry, just a little talk to get yourself to calm down and get comfortable with me. You seem really nervous." Kurenai laughed softly when she saw Ranmaru blushed after hearing that. Ranmaru took a deep breath; he couldn't protect his loved ones before but now he was given a second chance and he wouldn't waste it. He would become strong for his new friends and family and would take anything thrown at him just like his Naruto-nii and Haku-nee.

"Well, I was raised in this village called…"

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**1 Week Later**

For team five it was quite an exciting week, not every day you get to be trained by few jonins. Naruto, Haku and Ranmaru would meet with Yamato early in the morning and would train all the way till lunch; of course with breaks. Later each genin would go and meet their other sensei and after training for few hours they would meet back at their own house. After getting some well-deserved rest, they would discuss with each other about what they had learned in order to improve. Sometimes they would go out and train till dinner if they had time. It was just one week but still they could feel their own growth and even Yamato was pleased with their progress. He knew that if his students keep progressing like this they would be more than ready for the Chunin exam. But that didn't mean he would soften up, he could see the other Jonin sensei were starting to prepare their teams. He was quite surprised when he saw all the rookies-teams' sensei were doing the same. To him they were not quite ready yet but only time would tell.

Tonight was a bit different as Haku wanted to train alone but it was just a façade. She was looking up at the sky but looked back when she felt the presence.

"Hello there, Sasuke-san." Haku said while turning to face him.

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Flashback

"_How could I be so careless?" She berated herself._

_The figure approached her and seeing the face she paled more._

_It was Sasuke._

_Ranmaru shouted from afar to Haku if anything was wrong as he didn't see the little skirmish that just happened. Haku looked at the last Uchiha who just motioned her to follow him, seeing that she told Ranmaru that she was fine and she would go get something for refreshment after which she followed Sasuke who took her a bit far from their practice ground. _

"_Look Sasuke-san, about earlier…" Haku was interrupted when Sasuke looked at her with serious face and spoke, "Fight me."_

_Whatever Haku had in mind that was definitely not it. She relaxed inwardly but didn't let her guard down. For now she would follow Sasuke's lead to see where his thoughts were heading, so she asked, "Why?"_

"_I have an ambition and for that I need to be ahead of everyone. I don't care what happened back at the wave but I am guessing our sensei and Hokage knows about it, if so I got no problem with you being here and hiding your bloodline. But what I do have a problem with is the result of our last fight and I want a rematch." Sasuke ended his speech with a stance. Haku knew there was no way out of this and if she rejected the match he would just keep on pestering her and without knowing might bring some troubles, she thought for a while and was trying to come up with the best solution and then it hit her._

"_Sasuke-san I don't want to fight meaningless battles and I told this to you even when I was an enemy. But looking at you I know that you will not back down so I suggest we held the match back for one week. You choose the time and place but I suggest somewhere out of prying eyes. Also I would like to ask you not to talk about my real abilities to anyone." Haku kept her tone calm and quite._

"_I got no problem with that, then one week later we will meet again and in between I will tell you the time and place." With that Sasuke took one more good look at her and then left._

Flashback Ends

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Now here they were getting ready to fight.

Haku looked at the sky where clouds were covering the glowing full moon.

"The first moon light." Haku suggested and when Sasuke got what she meant he nodded.

Both took their stances.

Haku looked at the last Uchiha carefully, she did her research and learned about the Uchiha massacre and also the culprit behind it. She came to understand him a bit more after her findings but this was a battlefield, no sympathy against an opponent who was going to go all out against you. Zabuza taught her that no matter who her opponent was _never_ go in for instant win or let your guard down, observe to find openings to strike fast and hard. Even Ibiki told her something similar. In his way, information was always a major asset. If one had enough information which he or she could use against the opponent, it would be like a tide turner depending on how one would use that information, which was similar to a mind game.

She saw Sasuke already activated his Sharingan which had two tomoe meaning it was not complete. She also read about the bloodline and honestly to her it was a frightening bloodline but luckily her bloodline could counter his. She knew that he was thinking that she would go head on head to get the upper hand like before and if his stance and posture was saying anything, it was that he already had some counter plan against her.

Sasuke watched his opponent, frankly he would admit she was strong. Her taijutsu was based on speed and quick hit and last time she was able to go against two head on head. He improved his taijutsu but knew his Intercepting fist alone wouldn't be able to give him any edge over her as she got him beat on speed and experience but with his Sharingan activated he hoped that he would be able to close the gap. The problem was her ninjutsu and bloodline. He had to avoid going to ninjutsu battle. He knew that he would have to go into taijutsu first because if he could, than he would have advantage from the start. And he also had few tricks just for her, but he had to make sure they start off with taijutsu first.

The clouds made enough way for the contestants to see the glimmer of the moonlight.

Sasuke charged right away to get the first hit but Haku intercepted him on the mid way surprising Sasuke. He moved to the right just in time to dodge the incoming fist but thanks to his sharingan he was able to see the sudden direction change in Haku's punch. She did a hard stop and tried to elbow Sasuke who ducked and roll away to get distance but Haku was not going to let that happen.

She charged at Sasuke and took a swing at him followed by a round kick. Sasuke had to dodge again, he knew he was at fault because he dodged her first punch which he _should_ have intercepted, Haku now was going on with strong attacks which would hurt even if he tried to block and she was using her superior speed to take advantage over his sharingan. Seeing no other way around, Sasuke charged when she tried to elbow him again. He blocked the elbow and gave a strong punch but it was blocked by her knee, he could feel his bones almost breaking.

"_Damn this girl!"_

Haku was surprised when she felt like she got hit in her stomach although it was not possible, she jumped back to see what hit her but Sasuke was now on her tail. She went on defensive mode but she was still taking hits. But the weird part was that those hits were coming in an impossible time and in a weird angle. Suddenly it all clicked. She deliberately took Sasuke's punch to her stomach and when she saw Sasuke's expression changed ever so slightly,

"Kai!" She shouted and hearing that Sasuke jumped back.

"_Damn!"_ Sasuke gritted his teeth.

"Illusion with taijutsu, nice one there Sasuke-san but I am guessing you were trying to go for something big, right?" Haku smirked, she knew he would have wanted to go with taijutsu first cause in ninjutsu she had the upper hand. But from the previous fight both of them knew head on head would not be a wise choice. So in order to bring out Sasuke's counter attack early, she engaged with him ferociously giving him no opening. But honestly she didn't know it would be genjutsu to throw her off balance, guess he figured out that was the only way to break her defense and if it wasn't for Ranmaru she wouldn't have caught it.

"_But I didn't want to use it this early, I just came up with it recently to counter opponent with stronger taijutsu skill and speed. The technique requires for the opponent to keep looking at my eyes from time to time while engaging with me in taijutsu battle, so I can put powerful genjutsu to throw them out of their rhythm. Because the genjutsu will show them a faster version of me so they will block earlier giving me an opening. But it takes quite decent amount of chakra and concentration. I still can't keep on using them for long so I wanted to use it to give some heavy blow but that damn girl ruined it. Had to use early."_ Sasuke sighed but for some reason he was kind of feeling excited, it was long since someone pushed him to go this far.

"Well even if I wasn't able to do _something big_, I did do my secondary objective." Sasuke smirked as he took battle stance once more.

Haku knew what Sasuke was talking about, at first when they started the field was greener and there were a small pond on the side but now they were on a bit rocky area. In the midst of the fight Sasuke kept pushing her to a particular direction and because of that he was able to change the location of the fight to his liking. She knew when he was leading her to a different area while fighting but the genjutsu caught her off-guard and she had to focus on that.

"_This will be tricky."_ Haku sighed.

"Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique." Small fireballs were coming at Haku in an unpredictable manner. Haku took out senbons but when she saw what was _actually _coming at her, she started going through hand-seals fast.

"Hyoton: Certain kill ice spears." But instead of ice spears coming out randomly, the spears form a wall surrounding Haku. The fireballs hit the frozen walls and when it died out the hidden shurikens came into the view.

"How?" Sasuke asked in an agitated voice.

"The sound, even if you hid the shuriken the sound of them spinning at this hour is not hard to detect. Come on, is that all you got?" Haku smiled which angered Sasuke.

Sasuke threw several smoke bombs surrounding Haku. When he saw the smokes covered the area he jumped high.

"Fire Release: Great Flame Flower." He pointed all the powered up fireballs at one direction, center of the ice wall. When all the fireballs hit at the same time the explosion was huge and it shattered the ice wall. Without taking any risks he threw shuriken with ninja wire attached and felt something getting caught in it. When the smoke cleared up, a battered up Haku was caught in the wire trap. He didn't want to let this chance go so he charged at her to end it.

"Hyoton: Showering snow." The frozen snow poured all over Sasuke when he was close, although it felt like low powered but before Sasuke could move, lots of needles flew from front and hit most of his nerves making him fully paralyzed momentarily. Sasuke looked behind to see Haku was holding a kunai at the back of his neck.

"Your loss." Sasuke gritted his teeth when he heard Haku saying that.

"How? I had you." Sasuke asked angrily.

"Did you really think I would remain in the middle of the ice wall after you threw the smoke bombs? I put a trap and moved away the moment smoke started to fill up the area." Haku explained but she didn't say which jutsu she used, her combination of Hyoton: Ice clone and Hyoton: Showering snow, no point in explaining all of the jutsu she used; the less he knew the better.

"Fuck!" Sasuke smashed his fist into the ground, it hurt like hell cause of the needles but the pain of loss was worse.

"Sasuke-san, I know what happened to your clan but your anger is holding you back. Because of it….." Haku couldn't finish as Sasuke got up and stared at her directly.

"You know nothing! Not about what happened and not about my anger and hatred. It is the anger that took me where I am, made me this strong. I have to avenge all the people that died that day. My clan, my family!" Sasuke shouted.

"Sasuke-san, I didn't see my own clan's massacre, something that I am glad about. But I want to ask you, all this anger and revenge, is this for your own vengeance or for your clan's justice?" Haku asked softly.

Sasuke was stunned, he didn't know how to answer that but after coming all this way he would not diverge from his way of life, he couldn't.

"Don't talk like you know how it feels! To see the person you admire…"

"And love one day become someone else and kills your family. Destroys the home where you belonged." Hearing that Sasuke was shocked.

"I won't go into detail Sasuke-san but my father killed my mother when he found out she had a bloodline; was going to kill me as well but my bloodline got activated and saved me." Haku spoke in a whispered tone but Sasuke heard it all.

"So you killed your father, right? You got your revenge. So why are saying all this?" Sasuke asked in dreaded voice.

"Because it didn't bring back those days where we were a family, didn't answer any questions that I had. All that left after that was a broken girl who didn't know why to live anymore. I _know_ how it feels like Sasuke-san, so that is why I am asking don't go down that road willingly." Haku pleaded.

Sasuke didn't know what to do or what to say anymore, all this time he thought no one knew his pain or went through what he had gone through. But he was wrong.

"Also, Sasuke-san. About today's fight I enjoyed it before you started to fall for my taunts. I used ice jutsus where there is no water. It took a lot out in me but instead of analyzing the situation you fell for my taunting. If you would have tried to drag the battle I would have lost." Haku said while she smiled a bit.

"Don't try to shoulder it alone, my foster-father and my team made me this strong and I know I will grow stronger with them. If you are this strong alone I wonder how strong you can be if you start to rely on people. Maybe next time, I get to fight you when you are stronger and more cool-headed." Haku winked at Sasuke and left.

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A bit far away

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"Didn't see that coming?" Kakashi spoke in a surprised tone.

"What did I tell ya, senpai. My team is _way_ stronger than any rookie team." Yamato smirked and left.

What Haku and Sasuke didn't know was that their little interactions didn't go unnoticed by their Jonin sensei. But instead of stopping them they decided to see how it played out.

"So, what are you going to do now Sasuke?" Kakashi smiled a bit at his student.

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**OMAKE**

The First Kiss

After their conversation, they had dinner which was quite uneventful. Naruto did feel that Hinata's sister was watching his every move intently but their father was worse. When dinner was over, Naruto politely asked them if he could leave early as he had training in the morning.

Hinata showed him out of the compound, she was feeling bad when she saw how Naruto looked so gloomy. She mustered her courage and grabbed his hand.

"Naruto-kun, what's wrong?" She asked worriedly.

"Hinata-chan, what if I messed up in the exam. Then what will happen? Should I take out your father before that? Nah, too strong. Should I ask the Hokage to do something about it? Nah the old man is an ass. What should I do?" Naruto started shooting all the questions in a panic.

Hinata tried to hold back her giggle. She knew if anyone would do _well_ in the chunin exam it would be Naruto. But what made her truly happy was that he was thinking of doing all these for her. She smiled brightly and went for a peck on his cheek but luckily Naruto turned around just in time.

They were stunned for a moment. Their lips touched each other's lightly. Naruto hold Hinata's shoulder and pushed her back a bit. Hinata was shocked and then got scared when Naruto pushed her back gently. But before she could say or do anything,

Naruto fainted.

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**Done. Till next time guys.** **(I might put a revised version of this chap later if I find too many mistakes on my part)**


	18. Chapter 18 : Start of the Exam

**Hello everyone, here is a fast update.**

**Ghost Raven 07: Thanks pal.**

**ChunkyFunkyMunky: I already explained why mine storm bloodline is different and for other bloodlines I am not sure, it might make Naruto god-like which I am trying to avoid.**

**Ryuujin96: Thanks pal, I will revise the new chapters sometime soon, I hope. Glad you liked the fight and interactions but as for Hiashi, come on most of the girl's dad will act like that so can't help with that one hahaha. As for chunin exam, all I can say – Stay tune.**

**LazyGrayKnightof17: Thanks I wanted to make his team unique, new one that no one did before. Glad that you liked the omake although it was quite short.**

**Hee-Ho Master: Thanks bro. **

** : Glad you like it.**

**FinalKingdomHearts: Thank you.**

**Thank you everyone for rating and reviewing.**

**The Chunin Arc starts from here.**

_**Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto.**_

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This past month had a huge impact on team five's growth, it was not everyday occurrence where one was able to be taught by few sensei. Team five trained with Yamato in the morning till noon, their main focus was on teamwork and coming up with combo attacks. But Yamato would try to focus on Ranmaru a bit more as he had to cover lots of basic grounds to catch up with rest of his teammates. Ranmaru was able to finish 'water walking exercise' and 'advance tree walking exercise'. He was not a hand to hand combat type of person but still Yamato trained him to the ground to cover his weakness. He was not willing to take any risk because no matter what, he knew that a time would come when Ranmaru would be forced to go in the frontline, so he was making sure that the kid at least could be good with one taijutsu style before the exam.

Ranmaru didn't complain rather he was happy that Yamato was focusing on his weak points cause from his point of view he had too many of them. That was for his morning session and as for his other sensei, she was able to make him like genjutsu. Well to her, Ranmaru was natural to the point where he was able to cast a low ranking genjutsu with only one handseal. Although it was a low ranking one, Kurenai could see the potential in Ranmaru, so just after two weeks she started to go through high level ones and Ranmaru just absorbed them. The only drawback was his chakra capacity which was slightly average. But that could be fixed with time and chakra control.

As for our blond hero, in the morning he would do the teamwork with everyone than would move on to do combo attacks. The idea just hit him when he was talking with Yamato and he bought up ino-shika-cho combo. From then, he also wanted for his team to make a combo similar to them, but not everything was as easy as it seemed to be. After going through several tries, they found out both Haku and Naruto could use Ranmaru's bloodline but only as a decoy. One more thing they learned which was 'storm release' and 'ice release' didn't work together. Although they kept trying but it was quite a hard case, they were manage to combine Haku's 'Showering snow' and Naruto's 'Laser Circus' but instead of powering up one another they lowered their efficiency.

At least the training with his afternoon sensei was going smoothly. After going all out few times against Yugao, she was quite pleased with his kenjutsu but said that he still needed a lot of experience. From then instead of _teaching_ Naruto, she started practicing with him in kenjutsu. She even bought her fiancé Hayate to have him practice on kenjutsu, all the month Naruto focused on training with only his swords on Yugao's watch. His chosen sword style 'Twin moon style' was a bit unique so Yugao said she couldn't help him on advancing the sword style. But she showed him some of her own moves as well other sword moves available. It did give him some ideas to create some original moves. All in all, he really enjoyed his time with Yugao.

Well, same couldn't be said for Haku. Training with Ibiki was quite stressful. It was just as tiresome, if not more, than Zabuza's training but she had to admit it was worthwhile. Ibiki teamed her up with some other new chunins and made them go through some team formations and strategies. He also made her observe few interrogations so that she knew how to interrogate enemies when the time comes. She didn't like it but she took notes. Haku's observation skill was quite good but with the help of Ibiki it was sharpened. But she liked training with her own team more. What she learned from Ibiki, she applied them on her morning exercise and honestly it felt good to lead a team of your own. After that, at Naruto's request, they started working on combination attack but so far it was not progressing that much. They also trained at night sometimes if they had spare energy left, for Haku and Ranmaru that is.

Hinata started joining almost all the night training after the second week, encouraged by Kurenai. When she heard that Yamato was going to train her on water element, she was ecstatic but of course she was told that in absence of Kiba and Shino. Kurenai started training her team as well for the exam so they stopped doing too many missions. She would train with her team in the morning and at afternoon her team would had their own training time. Kiba objected the idea first but after Shino explaining how improving oneself would affect the team, Kiba backed down. Kiba and Shino would train with their clan whereas Hinata would go with Yamato who not only taught her on water jutsus but also worked on her completing her new taijutsu. When he said he was going to work with her new taijutsu she was quite surprised and when asked why he was going to do that, all Yamato answered "Thank that boyfriend of yours."

After the second week, Yamato also advised her to join in team five's night session. The night time training was few times a week. All they did was helping one another, for example in Haku's case they worked on perfecting her ice clone and her new jutsu. Ranmaru was working on a project given to him by Kurenai, it was new type of genjutsu. Hinata's part was quite simple, to improve her new taijutsu and it was done by every one of team five going against her only in taijutsu. It was quite hard for Hinata as Haku, Ranmaru and Naruto had different styles and ways of fighting but it was doing wonders in improving it, she almost completed the style, only a few parts left to improve.

Hinata was now hoping that she could finish it before the Chunin exam.

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With Kakashi

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Kakashi was watching his students' training intently. He, like other rookie sensei, started to train for the exam and he knew the main reason why all the rookie teams were going to participate was the exam. Because it was going to be held on their own village and this was quite a rare opportunity which would give a huge advantage. But he sighed when he looked at his team. They were getting quite good as a team, somewhat, but as a single member each had problems. But luckily one was taking steps to overcome them.

Kakashi was quite surprised when Sasuke came to his house really early in the morning, after the day of his match with Haku, and asked for help. He knew the hatred for his brother was still there but for now Sasuke decided to put that aside and concentrate on surpassing Haku. Sasuke had conflicted feeling about it but for now he would train to face Haku and beat her, he wanted to know more about how she was able to go on with her life. Sasuke knew one thing, his thoughts up until now was solely on killing his brother but he never thought about the life after. And Haku had gone through the life after the vengeance, so he wanted to know more and he knew that he just couldn't go and ask her about that. So he put aside his thoughts of hatred because he wasn't stupid, he knew if he met his brother now he wouldn't be able to do anything as he was nowhere near his level. So for now he would go for the closest person that he had to surpass.

Teaching an enthusiastic Sasuke was fun, unlike Sakura. The girl had potential but unlike Sasuke she didn't had the right motivation. After the mission at wave, she became serious but not as much as he wanted. The girl was still fawning over her teammates, especially Sasuke who still had no interest in her. Kakashi taught her some advanced chakra control and then later gave her some genjutsu scroll. He was surprised when she told him that she learned those in a week. He thought about asking for Kurenai's help after the exam because now everyone was quite busy with their own team. But one thing he was glad about was that during fights or mission, unlike past, she actually focuses on the mission itself.

And the last and probably the most problematic person was Sai. After their mission at wave, Kakashi kept his eyes on Sai and was now confirmed that he was a root member. He even reported it to Sandaime but the old man said there was nothing he could do as Sai came into his team legally and didn't made any problems. _"For now."_ That's what Kakashi thought when he heard that. Sai when in a team would follow Sasuke, in the past they had a problem in there but after a nice chat with Kakashi after their mission at wave, they stopped arguing pointlessly. Sasuke would lead the team but would hear out his teammates if they had any opinions. Sai would actually give some good advice from time to time but the most messed up part was that in training or in solo, he would always hold back. It became painfully obvious as the time passed. Even when Kakashi would let Sasuke and Sai spar against each other, Sai held back. Sasuke got pissed after he noticed that but later he stopped giving his best as well.

Kakashi really wanted to have the competitive atmosphere in his team but it was not going to happen with passive Sai and unmotivated Sakura. He wished he could have Naruto but that damn incident changed everything. Looking at the sky he just sighed and hoped for one thing,

"Maybe the chunin exam will help them."

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Somewhere else

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Danzo looked at the reports, he was irritated not because Sai had his movements restricted. He expected that to happen considering who his sensei was, but the fact that what he found out recently.

Some of his elite root members would go around to look into anbus' activities. And they discovered some quite interesting information. The jinchuriki had one of the mist swords and he was training with one of the top and trusted anbu of the Third. When he found out about it first, he immediately called few of his good root members and told them to keep an eye on the jinchuriki's team. But here he got hit by a wall. When they trained in the morning, they were with Yamato who would make few wood clones and would make a parameter around them. It was really hard to get inside without being noticed by an ex-root member.

After their morning session, they would learn individually with different elite shinobis, that's also piqued Danzo's interest as to why they were getting special treatment. He wanted to know more but also hit a dead end in this one, there was no report or no documents about their training regime as if it was done by verbal agreement. Their session with different shinobis didn't give him the information that he wanted. But what surprised him most was their night time training. From time to time they would train at night and the Hyuuga heiress would join them as well. He didn't want to lose this chance so he sent his best men to spy on them but what they wrote on the report pissed him off. Their training ground was being monitored by Kakashi, Yamato and Yugao and they were not slacking off at all, even when the jinchuriki's team would stay at home it was guarded by elite trusted anbus of the Third. It was as if they were protecting the Hokage himself. No way in.

Another dead end.

Now Danzo was not stupid, he learned one thing from all of these failures that Sandaime was not protecting Naruto alone. For some reason he was protecting the _whole team_ meaning the other members had something that should be kept in the dark, for how long that he didn't know but what he knew was that he didn't like it. He stood up and started walking with the help of his crane. Even though he wanted to learn what Hiruzen was hiding, he knew Hiruzen changed. Doing things behind his back became riskier, he had to tread carefully. Before leaving his room he looked back at his desk and one particular information came into his mind, he smiled remembering that.

The Chunin Exam.

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**The Day before the Exam**

Naruto was pissed.

In front of him, Konohamaru and his friends were trying to avert his stern gaze.

"Come on, Naruto-kun. Don't be so mad." Hinata requested softly.

Naruto sighed, the exam was on the next day so all the team had their day off. He told Hinata few days before to spend the day with his team. It was just a façade for a date. While it was true that Haku and Ranmaru was there but they kept their distance and minded their own business, he had to do it otherwise Hiashi would have his head. Somehow he saw their first kiss but because he fainted, he was _spared_. So with the cover up he was having great time with his girlfriend and the best part was because of the exam everyone was quite busy to notice them. Wearing a hooded jacket helped too. But this happiness was short lived when he saw the square box, he wanted to avoid it but the box dashed towards them and exploded. After the smoke was clear, Konohamaru wanted to give a speech but seeing Naruto's pissed of face, he became quiet and started fidgeting.

"Konohamaru, I am not in the mood to play with you or to accept your challenges, I _was_ having some good time with my girlfriend." Naruto said in an irritated voice but hearing what he said Konohamaru looked at him with sparkling eyes.

"Aniki, you are telling me you bagged THE 'princess of Konoha'." He asked in admiration. Listening to his tone Naruto softened up, he grinned and gave Hinata a one armed hug while giving the victory sign with other.

"You got to tell us how you did it?" Konohamaru started jumping up and down and his other friends started to get excited as well, Hinata found this cute but she really didn't like to be in the spotlight but seeing where this was going if she didn't do anything soon she would be in trouble.

"So, Naruto-kun; who are they? Friends of yours?" Hinata asked sweetly hoping to change the direction of the conversation.

"Ahh, sorry Hinata-chan. This is Konohamaru, Hokage's grandson and for the other two…." Naruto trailed off.

"Moegi and Udon." Konohamaru introduced his friends, he was feeling a bit embarrassed seeing how he became too excited to introduce his friends.

"Nice to meet you all, so I am guessing Moegi and Udon just met Naruto-kun for the first time but what about you Konohamaru-kun? How did you two meet?" Hinata asked hoping that they would forget their main question.

Naruto told Hinata how he met Konohamaru when his team was being debriefed for a mission and the events transpired after that. They quickly become friends and Konohamaru's respect increased when Naruto _defeated_ his jonin sensei, Ebisu. After that they would have some small challenges or played ninja with one another. The more Konohamaru spent time with Naruto the more his respect towards him increased, and to show that first he used to call him 'Boss' but after sometime he started to call him 'Aniki'.

"Playing ninja? Sounds quite interesting." Hinata giggled a bit.

"What kind of ninja plays as _ninja_?" Sakura asked in cheeky manner. Everyone looked to see the newcomer, they didn't notice her approach as everyone was too engrossed at Naruto's story telling.

"Nobody asked you, Sakura." Naruto grumbled, he wanted to shoo away Konohamaru and his gang after this but it seemed luck wasn't on his side. What Naruto didn't know was that Sakura actually wanted to talk with him, she wouldn't admit but she really was missing his overly doting on her and wanted to know if anything happened or not but hearing the way he started to speak to her made her angry and jealous.

"Ya! Go away muscle girl, we are busy." Konohamaru said without knowing what the outcome would be.

"Konohamaru, the game starts now and the first mission is to survive from _the muscle girl_." Naruto quickly said but he lowered his voice at the end. Getting his meaning Konohamaru sprinted away from Sakura who was hot on his tail. Naruto started laughing seeing that where Moegi and Udon also gave chase after Sakura.

"Come on, Naruto-kun. Let's go catch Sakura before she catches Konohamaru." Hinata said while shaking her head.

"Heh! Why? We just got rid…. I mean they are going to have fun now, it's a game don't worry. We should continue where we left." Naruto replied back cheekily making Hinata blush.

"Come on, we can have our date after this." Hinata took an unmotivated Naruto's hand and started running after everyone else.

When they reached them, they saw a nervous Sakura was trying to tell a guy with a cat suit to drop Konohamaru, there was a girl behind the guy.

"Oi bastard! What do you think you are doing?" Naruto shouted in an irritated voice but before he could go any further Hinata stopped him and smiled at him gently, seeing that he just sighed.

"Can't you see? We are teaching the kid some manners!" The guy said without a care.

"You guys are from Suna, right? You are here for the chunin exam? Then I don't think you should make any troubles." Hinata replied back politely.

The cat-guy took a good look at her and then grinned, "Name's Kankuro. I don't think anyone is going to make any fuss about a brat but if you go out with me maybe I will do what you say."

"Pleasure to meet you Kankuro-san, my name is Hinata Hyuuga. And I think our Hokage might make a fuss about his grandson being treated like this and as for your offer I have to decline." Hinata spoke gently as she knew after what she said they _had_ to back off.

Kankuro dropped Konohamaru as if he was tagged with explosives, but before he could come up with a remark the girl behind him punched him in the head.

"Told you not to make a scene." The girl growled.

"Ya, cause I don't think the guy up there looks happy about it." Naruto said in a tired tone, it was just one after another.

Both Suna-nin paled when they saw who Naruto was talking about.

"Hey Gaara. I thought you were at hotel." Kankuro was sweating bullets.

"You are a disgrace, head back before you make a fool out of yourself." The guy named Gaara spoke in a cold tone but before turning back he looked at Naruto who just looked at him without a care.

"You should not let your guard down, you don't know when a monster might come and attack." Gaara said while looking at Naruto directly, hearing that both of his teammates tensed.

"Thanks for the advice." With that Naruto turned around but he stopped and looked back, "You should control that bloodlust of yours, it makes the nature feel _unrest._" He smirked and left with Hinata and others.

Gaara kept looking till Naruto disappeared.

"There are lots of worthy sacrifices for mother in the exam."

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**The Exam Day**

"Wow I can't believe they put genjutsu in front of the room." Naruto said while he and his teammates waved goodbye to their sensei.

"Naruto, the exam started the moment we stepped inside this building, but if I am to guess I would say that was to take out the weak ones." Haku said as they entered room 301.

"But it was nice of Yamato-sensei to come and see us before the exam." Ranmaru said, he was a bit nervous when he saw the people inside the room. All of them looked experienced and deadly. He calmed down when Haku gently touched his shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze. They passed the fake room without making any scene, well Naruto wanted to but Haku voiced against it.

Haku started to look around to see the competition, all the rookie teams except for Sasuke's were here. From the major village, there were two from Kiri, one from Suna and three from Kumo and none from Iwa. There was one from a new village but from the headband she was guessing something related to sound. She took another good look at the teams, the one from Suna would cause problems. Only one team from Kumo looked dangerous but what was disturbing her was the teams from Kiri.

"_Are they here for the mist sword? Two teams are too much considering their condition, let's hope I am wrong here."_ Haku thought.

Suddenly the door opened and Sasuke entered a bit battered but he had a smirk in his face. Following him was his team and another team, Hinata's cousin was in there but one of the team member was also a bit beaten but he had his head down.

"You had a fight? Guessing you won." Haku told Sasuke when he approached her.

"It was a draw." Sasuke smirked at her, Haku just smiled. She noticed all the rookie teams started to gather around them. Ino wanted to jump at Sasuke but Sakura caught her and they started to bicker at each other.

"Guess all the rookie teams are going for the exam." Chouji said while eating.

"Heh! But our team is going to come out as the best!" Naruto said while puffing his chest out.

"You guys should quiet down, you don't want to bring unwanted attention." Everyone looked at the newcomer, he had onyx eyes and ash-grey hair which was kept in ponytails that extended to his upper back. He had a pair of circular glasses and wore a dark purple shirt with a high collar with a white under shirt and dark purple pants.

"Name's Yakushi Kabuto." The guy introduced himself.

"Have you already tried the exam?" Sakura asked.

"Well this is my seventh try." Kabuto explained sheepishly.

"You must be damn weak." Kiba chuckled.

"The exams aren't as it seems, maybe I could lend you a hand." Kabuto took out a deck of cards, "This are chakra cards and they react to my chakra signature to reveal information. Any particular team you want to know about." Kabuto finished, Haku went on alert mode. Something about the guy didn't seem quite right.

"I want to know about Haku from team five." Sasuke said directly.

"Why?" Sakura and Ino immediately asked together.

"Because he is a pervert." Haku answered in a flat voice. Everyone was taken aback and looked at Sasuke.

"What? No! It's to beat you." Sasuke asked seriously but his tone and the pink dust in his cheeks gave him away.

"Wow, you sure are kinky _Sasuke-kun_." Haku replied back in a sexy tone, Sasuke felt like he had been slapped in the face. He gritted his teeth while his blushing increased.

"Never mind." Sasuke huffed and looked away, everyone laughed except Ino and Sakura.

"Well making an ass out of Sasuke aside, can you tell me about Gaara, the red head from Suna." Naruto asked Kabuto.

"Sure, let's see his full name is Sabaku no Gaara, son of Kazekage, his team consists of 2 members, his elder siblings. He completed 10 D rank, 15 C rank and 1 B rank and all mission was done without a scratch. This year is going to be tough." Kabuto answered.

"What about Naruto?" Kiba asked.

"Ahh, Naruto Uzumaki, member of team five. He has a storm release bloodline, wow." Out of the corner of her eyes, Haku saw few of the Kumo nins shifted uncomfortably, "He has done 25 D rank, 5 C rank, 1 B rank and 2 A rank! Wow kid, you sure worked hard these last few months." Kabuto laughed where every other rookie member's jaw dropped except for Hinata and Naruto's teammates.

But before anyone could say anything Ibiki came.

"Silence brats. I am Morino Ibiki, your first exam proctor. Now everyone show your ID and we will begin the first part of the exam." Ibiki told in a calm voice but it was full of power and authority.

"Bring it on!" Naruto shouted.

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**Somewhere Far**

"**Are you sure about that, my friend**." Raijin asked in a surprised voice.

"**Yes Lord Raijin. It seems that the kid started developing the powers sooner than we thought**." Raiju replied.

"**Hmm, guess I have to give his **_**test**_** earlier than I expected. It should be amusing. Now let's see what the kid can do**." Raijin chuckled, it seemed as if he just found something quite interesting.

"_**Hope you are ready for this, Naruto**__._" Raiju thought worriedly.

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**Done. Few things before I wrap it up,**

**First I am thinking of giving Sasuke earth element as his second one.**

**Second Ranmaru's bloodline will be named as Reigan – Spirit eye, (going to have fun coming up with new ideas for his abilities.)**

**Third is that I might skip scenes if it is similar to canon or might write in different point of view, hope that is ok with you guys.**

**That's about it, till next time.**


	19. Chapter 19 : Forest of Death I

**Hey everyone, been some time, hasn't it. Now without further ado, here is the start of the forest of death Arc.**

_**Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto.**_

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"When I said I am ready for everything I should have said everything _except _a freaking written test!" Naruto grumbled out.

"Come on, Naruto. Stop sulking. We passed, didn't we?" Haku groaned but Naruto kept grumbling about how it was unfair to have a written exam.

Their first part of the exam was a written one much to almost everyone's surprise and some people's annoyance. Naruto panicked but sitting beside Hinata calmed him down but it _surely _didn't make him any smarter. Although Hinata tried to help him, he rejected the idea when he saw if anyone helped they would get disqualified as well. For Haku it was easy as gathering information was one of her strong forte, she didn't even needed to use any jutsus at all, following the hand movement of the people beside her was more than enough. She even passed the information to Ranmaru who sat behind her but unfortunately Naruto was too far. She was a bit concerned about Naruto but his stunt at the Tenth question solved all the problems. But he was still sulking saying that it was not fair, if Haku was to guess it was because Hinata might have seen Naruto's empty exam sheet.

Now they were on their way to the next part of the exam. She was worried about the second part of the exam seeing that the reckless Anko was in charge of that.

When they reached their destination, she started to look around for the _troublesome_ teams. The one from Suna was definitely on the top of the list, only one team from Kumo looked like it might give some troubles and from their own village, Team Seven and Team Nine might cause some problems if they crossed their path with them. But the most worrisome part was the teams from Kiri, because they were going through war they shouldn't be able to send any teams let alone two and the way they were subtly looking at her team was setting alarms off on her head. _'This is not good'_ was the only thought that went thought her head when she learned the conditions of their second exam. All the teams that she wanted to _avoid_ were looking at her team from time to time.

'_Great!' _

The Suna and the Kumo, she got no idea as to why they wanted to fight them but the rest of the teams were pretty obvious.

"_Guess the Kiri found out either about me or about Kiba."_ Haku noted grudgingly.

Naruto went to talk with Hinata for some time while Haku and Ranmaru got their scrolls. It was a Heaven's scroll.

"Alright you wimps. Go to your arranged gate and wait for the signal. I am saying one more time, DO NOT underestimate what is in Training ground forty four, it is not known as forest of death for nothing." Anko shouted at the contestants.

"So anyone got any plans?" Naruto asked eagerly while they stood behind gate ten.

"Got one but I will talk about it when we pass the gate." Haku whispered lowly which alerted her teammates.

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After Ten minutes later

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"So what spooked you out Haku-nee?" Naruto asked as they were running through the trees.

"For some reasons I think all the tough teams are targeting us. AND" stopping Naruto from shouting, "That is _not _a good thing. So I know this sounds bad but here is my suggestion. We go straight for the tower, no stopping in midway. We camp there. In that way we can target the people that are already exhausted not to mention we can _choose _who to target as well." Haku explained.

"Won't it be risky if few groups come together?" Ranmaru pointed out.

"Highly unlikely." Haku replied back.

"I don't like it as well but as our full team is on the hit list of other strong teams, I think that may be the safest route to go through." Haku told the other two, "So what do you think, Naruto?"

"Don't like it but judging by your voice we might be in serious shit if we do this in normal method. So why not?" Naruto said in an unexcited voice but even he knew that this place was no joke, one wrong move and that could possibly end their lives.

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**Near the Tower**

Team Five could see the top of the tower, Naruto made a clone and was carrying Ranmaru who was using his eyes to clear the path, because of that they reached near the tower real fast. But suddenly Ranmaru tensed up and sensing that Haku and Naruto stopped.

"Ranmaru?" Naruto asked.

All Ranmaru did was to look at one particular place and narrowed his eyes to get more clear vision.

The moment Haku and Naruto took a battle stance, three figures came out from where Ranmaru was looking at. All three were wearing full body cloak with an anbu mask; monkey, bear and eagle.

"What are Anbu doing here?" Naruto relaxed his form.

"Naruto-kun, something about them is not right. Please be careful." Haku whispered. Naruto took her warning and once again went into his battle stance.

"So, is there anything you need from us, Anbu-san?" Naruto asked in light tone.

The Anbu looked at each other, there was a silent communication. Then they charged at team five.

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Flashback

"_This is your task, measure their strengths and see what they are hiding?" Danzo smirked a bit as he handed Team five's file to his three root members._

"_How much force are we allowed to use?" One anbu with monkey mask asked._

"_Hiruzen is cautious right now, stay at the center of the forest, near the tower. I am pretty sure they will be tired and weakened by the time they reach there." Danzo replied while his eyes were scanning the three root members. Monkey was a strategic type root whose specialty was capturing weakened targets, Bear was a mid jonin class root whose specialty was fighting in the front line and Eagle was good with surveillance and tracking as he was equipped with one Byakugan eye. _

"_In unexpected circumstances?" Eagle asked._

"_Use enough force to bring out their true power. You are to withdraw immediately after you are done."_

"_Yes sir." All three replied._

Flashback ends

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Bear rushed at them but immediately he regretted when he was thrown back by a strong lightning bolt. Everyone looked at the cause and the root anbu grimaced, knowing things just went tougher.

"Naruto-kun, why are you using Kiba?" Haku asked, although she knew they might need it but she was still wary of the Kiri nin.

"Yamato-sensei told me that I can use Kiba on really tough situation and I am pretty sure fighting three suspicious Anbu falls into that category." Naruto replied as he went in front of Haku and Ranmaru.

"Make few clones and fight defensively, stay on guard." Haku advised as she took out her senbons.

Naruto didn't have time to neither respond nor make any clones as Bear charged again but this time he brought out his weapon, which was tonfa covered with inscribed words. Naruto stopped his advance once again with lightning charged Kiba strike but to his surprise Bear withstood the attack this time with his tonfa, it was as if the tonfa repelled the lightning attack, Naruto was too stunned at the development that he took the full blow of Bear's high kick but he recovered from the attack fast enough to block the bear's oncoming relentless attacks. His Kiba wasn't doing much damage but still he knew that the fake anbu was _too_ cautious around his swords.

"Haku-nee." Ranmaru looked at Haku who was looking at Naruto's battle as well as was keeping a sharp eye on the two unmoving anbus.

"Keep your _eye_ on them without noticing." Haku whispered. Ranmaru nodded but he was still concerned about Naruto.

In terms of raw power and equipment Naruto was superior to his opponent but he lacked real life experience and knowledge regarding his opponent who was quite armed in those areas. Bear was using minimum power to keep Naruto in check. Priority wise they are to evaluate Haku and Ranmaru, so Bear was making sure Naruto was occupied.

Now Naruto might be a dense knucklehead but in real life fighting he could sense and foresee quite a few hidden things and being an unexpected ninja he tended to use those opportunities in a unique way. From their ongoing clashes Naruto understood that the Anbu was stalling him, he was either waiting for his other members to strike or his chakra to diminish, also he noticed how he was subtly trying to move him away from his teammates which was also didn't go unnoticed by Haku. She knew that the moment she and Ranmaru would go to help Naruto they would be vulnerable to the other two who up till now still didn't make any moves. Ranmaru was hiding behind Haku in a way so the other two root couldn't see him using his eyes but what none of them knew was that his powers were already being assessed by eagle who was able to relay the message to Monkey without Team five noticing.

Suddenly out of nowhere Eagle threw few kunais at Haku and Ranmaru and Monkey followed closely behind those. But the kunai didn't even make to the half way before they were stopped by senbons courtesy of Haku who immediately threw enough smoke bombs to cover the area hoping that it would slow down the enemies, taking cover in the smoke she used Ranmaru's ability to go after Naruto. Eagle noted with the help with his Byakugan how Ranmaru was able to _see_ in the dense smoke and was leading Haku towards Naruto, he also took note of how Ranmaru's chakra near his eye was reacting.

"One down, one to go." Eagle whispered.

The moment Naruto saw the smoke went off he wanted to rush towards his teammates but his momentary distraction was enough for his opponent.

"Lightning release: Lightning discharge." Bear shouted while pointing his tonfa at Naruto.

"Shit! It wasn't deflecting the lightning, it was absorbing it." Naruto dodged but immediately he realized his mistake, he wasn't the target of the attack.

Luckily for Haku, she had enough experience fighting inside mist that she was able to sense the jutsu coming from front _and_ from the back, courtesy from the Monkey. She grabbed Ranmaru and used 'Kawarimi' on the right time to get in front of the frontal attack. But once again it seemed that they miscalculated the root's intention; they wanted Haku and Ranmaru to get caught but not in the jutsu but in the shock wave caused by the jutsu. Sensing the massive explosion Haku at the last moment shielded Ranmaru with her body, although the she was able to go far enough with 'kawarimi', the shockwave was still strong enough to send them flying. She landed on the ground rather harshly while holding Ranmaru tightly.

Naruto saw red when he saw Haku came flying from the smoke but he knew not to make the same mistake again. So he charged at Haku but was building up chakra. Bear thought the chakra buildup was from rage so he gave pursuit only to fall for Naruto's trap.

"Absorb this shithead!" Naruto yelled while he stopped suddenly and turned around when he sensed the root was close enough for his attack.

"Twin moon Storm style: Crescent moon."

Bear thought his tonfa would be able to _at least _reduce the damage. But he was so wrong. Not only the tonfa was shattered, the force of the attack was strong enough to throw the root far _through_ some trees who landed much harsher than Haku.

"Earth release: Earth spear."

"Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique."

The two jutsu combined making the earth spears coming at Naruto with much more speed and power, the deadlier part was that the spears were not coming from straight line rather they were moving randomly making them harder to track.

"Hyoton: Certain kill ice spears." Few solid ice spears rose in front Naruto which formed a solid wall strong enough to block the blazing earth spears, the roots were stunned at the revelations for few seconds. It was all the time Haku needed.

"Ninja Art: Hidden Mist Jutsu." Naruto smiled when he heard that, he dashed inside the mist.

Eagle and Monkey came beside their injured member.

"Can you move?" Monkey asked.

"Yes." Bear replied back as he was trying to shake of the numbness from his injured arms.

"They are heading back to the forest. It's hard to detect them properly through the thick mist." Eagle pointed out.

"Leave them. We got what Danzo-sama wanted. Let's move." Monkey ordered.

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With Team Five

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When Haku saw Naruto coming towards them, she whispered, "Back inside the forest."

Naruto immediately made two clones to carry both of his teammates and rushed inside the forest.

"Ranmaru, are they following us?" Haku asked.

"I can't see them." Ranmaru replied back.

"Haku-nee, you ok?" Naruto asked, he still had his Kiba out. With Haku being injured, he needed some extra reassurance.

"My ankle is twisted, not that badly. Used a little extra chakra on the mist so kinda low on it. Nothing that a good rest can't fix." Haku smiled weakly.

"So what now?" Ranmaru asked nervously.

"We rest for a while, better if we stay….." Their talk got interrupted when they sensed someone approaching them. Naruto made a few more clones but was surprised when he saw it was Sai.

"Sai, what are you doing here? Where is everyone else?" Naruto asked while he lowered his guard, just a bit.

"The duck butt and the chopping board is fighting someone while I am busy with something else." Sai replied as he started drawing something on his scroll.

"Something what?" Haku asked knowing that it was better not to. Her question was answered when a huge snake came at them crushing the trees in its path.

"Oh shit!" Was the common thought of Team Five.

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XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

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**Somewhere Else**

"So did you find them?" A man with Kiri headband asked his teammates.

"I am a sensor but I don't have experience in a freaking forest, gimme a break!" The girl in their team hissed.

"We got to find that girl, she can lead us to Zabuza. But first let's group up with the other team." The first person replied as he stood up.

"By the way, did you heard about the rumor that Raiga was killed?" The girl asked.

"Don't know but if he did die, then it would be a problem as we have no idea who may got hold of Kiba. Let's worry about that later. Time to move." The last person from the team ordered.

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In another part of the Forest

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"Is it me or this test is boring." A tall muscular boy with tanned skin and brown hair sighed as he dropped a Taki ninja. His yellow eyes scanned the fallen Taki team and one Ame team.

"We were chosen not for promotion but rather for infiltration, D. We confirm our objectives without blowing our cover. Anything on your end, C?" A girl, with long, straight, blonde, hair bound with taut bandages with black eyes, asked his teammate.

"Well, D took care of the stuffs we needed to pass this exam. We can either keep looking for the kid or go to the tower and wait him there. Your call, Yugito?" A young boy with short, blond hair and dark eyes replied back.

"Come on, let's just stay the first day. We can head back to the tower anytime we want. How about it?" D cheekily replied back.

"You just want to stay because you want to fight a Hyuuga." Yugito rubbed her temple.

"Despite that, this _is_ the first day. Maybe we should stay just one day?" C gave his thoughts to his teammates.

"Fine but D, stick to the plan. I don't want A-sama to get pissed off." Yugito requested to D rather forcedly.

"Ok, sheesh." D yawned as he lazily started to follow his teammates.

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XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

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**Unknown Location**

"Everything is here, Danzo-sama." Monkey stated as he gave Danzo the report.

"Stay. I want your opinion on this as well." Danzo ordered while he started to go through the report.

"Ice release? Interesting, so the girl got an extinct bloodline, all the way from Kiri. How is she?" Danzo looked at Monkey.

"She seems to be the head of the team. My guess is that it was her idea to come and wait near the tower for other teams. She is quite sharp and cunning, with a few more years she can easily be a high level jonin with tactician mindset." Monkey pointed out, Danzo nodded and went back to read the report.

"This new kid, why did you put unknown on his ability?" Danzo asked with slight interest lingering in his voice.

"With all due respect sir, we got no idea how his ability works. According to Eagle, his eyes can see through heavy smoke as well as through objects almost like Byakugan but unlike Byakugan his eye color changes to red and the chakra reacts differently." Monkey replied.

"Are you saying that the kid has one of a kind dojutsu?" Danzo asked as a slight smirk found it's way on his lips.

"That is a high probability." Monkey answered, he was caught off guard by the sheer excitement that was clearly visible on his leader's face.

"And about our jinchuriki?" Danzo stood up, the report forgotten.

"He truly knows storm release, strong enough to injure Bear's hand severely _even with_ the lightning enchanted tonfa, and also there was no Kyuubi's influence when he did that." Monkey answered back

"If that is all, you may leave." Danzo sounded quite pleased as he headed towards his bookshelf.

Monkey left immediately.

"Nice played, old friend. A team full of rare bloodlines, the kids will probably tell their teacher after this exam. For now I will lay low but there is quite some time before I can use this information. All I have to do is just to wait for one of those kids to slip, the jinchuriki with a legendary mist sword, an ice user with unclear background and a small kid with an unknown bloodline. You may have blocked me from taking the jinchuriki, Hiruzen, but I am pretty sure those other two can be as good as him with _proper_ training. A team full with unlimited potential. Oh the possibilities!" Danzo's smirk grew wider as he took a few scrolls from the shelf.

"These will do just fine."

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**Done. I am sincerely sorry for not replying to the reviews, the real life is just keep putting s**ts on me and I won't be free till my upcoming finals are over. There were few more parts I thought I was going to put here but I decided I will add them on later chapters. **

**I will name Ranmaru's bloodline as Reigan and will boost it up a bit to give it some more unique abilities.**

**Secondly if you have any particular funny event you want me to put as Omake, do tell me.**


	20. Chapter 20 : Forest of Death II

**Hello everyone, it has been quite some time since I last updated. Thanks for all the support guys, it really helps in motivating me. Also I want to confirm few things before starting the story,**

**First, Naruto here is powerful but not overpowered, some fights might seem easy because of him being coached properly (nothing against Kakashi but he was lazy at the beginning) and him having a strong bloodline.**

**And for Danzo, he will create some problems but that is so that the characters can evolve from the hardships.**

**Also, I will work on building characters of few rookies, not all of them. And if you want to see any special scenes as 'OMAKE' tell me, I will see what I can come up with.**

_**Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto.**_

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"We rest for a while, better if we stay….." Their talk got interrupted when they sensed someone approaching towards them. Naruto made a few more clones but was surprised when he saw it was Sai.

"Sai, what are you doing here? Where is everyone else?" Naruto asked while he lowered his guard, just a bit.

"The duck-butt and the chopping board is fighting someone while I am busy with something else." Sai replied as he was drawing something on his scroll.

"Something what?" Haku asked knowing that it was better not to. Her question was answered when a huge snake came at them crushing the trees in its path.

"Oh shit!" Was the common thought of Team Five.

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Moments Before

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"Sai, did your ink mouse found anyone yet?" Sasuke asked as he double checked their earth scroll.

"Not yet duck-butt." Sai made a crude remark as always but Sasuke just brushed it off, after spending some time with the odd boy Sasuke understood that he would always find a way to piss people off as if it was his natural talent. So instead of bickering with him over every of his comment Sasuke just ignored them all together. It was much easier and more efficient that way.

"Is it ok for us to advance this far, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked timidly, she wasn't sure of joining the chunin exam but she didn't want to hold her team back, they dashed towards the middle of the forest to get any exhausted opponent by surprise but so far no luck.

Before Sasuke could reply, a sudden noise alerted both him and Sai, and to their surprise a giant snake came at them out of nowhere. Sai jumped on one side while Sasuke, grabbing Sakura, jumped on another side. They didn't even had the chance to regroup as the snake took after Sai. Sasuke wanted to go after him but suddenly he felt a presence in front of him. And all of his instincts told him to focus on his current opponent.

"Ku ku ku, hello there; Sasuke-kun." Hearing the voice, Sasuke shivered.

"_Why do I get the feeling that I am screwed?"_

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With Team Five

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"Where the hell did this snake crawl out from?" Naruto hissed as his clones carried Haku and Ranmaru to a safer distance.

"Dunno, it just popped out from nowhere. It separated me from my team." Sai replied as he started to sketch some beasts fast.

"I don't have time for this shit." Naruto angrily grunted as he made his favorite hand seal.

"Shadow Clone: Explosion version."

When the smoke cleared, one shadow clone came into view which immediately charged at the Snake, the snake seeing the genin charging at it, opened its mouth and dashed to swallow the clone whole. But the clone dodged at the last second making the snake angry. It looked at the clone and made an angry hiss and as it opened its mouth once again to strike, to its surprise the clone jumped right at the open mouth of the unprepared snake, and dove all the way inside.

Naruto pointed his index finger at the snake and smirked,

"Boom!"

From the neck of the snake there was a big explosion but instead of seeing blood and organs of the giant snake, there was only smoke. And when the smoke disappeared the snake vanished as if it was never there to begin with.

"What the hell? Where did it go?" Naruto screamed in surprise.

"I think it was a summoning creature?" Sai replied hesitantly, being a root member he knew more than a normal genin; heck even a normal chunin didn't know as much as he did. So when he understood that the snake was a summoning creature he was troubled as he had an idea about the opponent his other teammates were facing.

"Whatever, let's go to Sasuke. He might still be in trouble." Naruto didn't wait for Sai as he motioned his clones, who were still holding onto Ranmaru and Haku, to move on.

"This is going to be bad." Sai whispered to himself, he released a deep breath and went after Naruto.

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XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

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Sasuke was cursing his luck.

No matter what he did his opponent was taking it all with ease and was acting as if she was enjoying it. And the look she was giving him….

A shiver ran down through his spine, nope, not a good sign.

He looked at Sakura who was trying her best to calm down, he couldn't blame her. Few moments ago the amount of bloodlust the woman emitted was something he never experienced, not even with the fight against Zabuza. Meaning this woman was _no way_ a mere genin. At first when she wanted their scroll he actually thought of giving it to her but after studying her gesture and speech a bit, Sasuke understood that she wouldn't leave them even if they handed their scroll. So he had to resort to fighting.

"Fuck my life." He cursed once again when the woman dodged his Kunai.

"That was good, Sasuke-kun. You purposely threw a kunai to miss me while throwing another to the previous one to change it's direction. Bravo." The woman smiled in a way which made Sasuke almost lose his breakfast.

"Now, how about…." The woman couldn't finish whatever she wanted to say as hundreds of Naruto came onto her.

"Yo Sasuke, need a hand?" The real one landed beside Sasuke.

"Naruto? Why the hell are you here?" Sasuke asked in a surprised tone but never did he take his eye away from the opponent.

"Chill, Sai is here as well but he took Sakura and hid with my teammates. They are not in the best condition to fight so I told him to look after them." Naruto replied while he readied his Kiba swords.

"What happened …" Sasuke was interrupted by a large explosion.

"Did my exploding clones hit?" Naruto asked no one as he looked a bit confused. Hearing that Sasuke didn't wait even a single second as he went through hand signs real fast,

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique." And with the help of his sharingan Sasuke threw the fireball exactly where the woman was standing before and it sounded like it hit something. But before Sasuke could talk to Naruto, a bone chilling laughter echoed around them.

"Nicely done, hiding exploding clones among normal shadow clones. And Sasuke-kun, you didn't waste a single second, truly remarkable." When the smoke cleared the woman was standing like nothing happened although she was battered and burned. She stretched her mouth with her hands and another person came out from there.

"_I think I am going to be sick."_ Sasuke and Naruto thought at the same time.

The person was a tall man with extremely translucent-looking pale skin and straight waist-length black hair, he had golden eyes with slits in his pupils, purple markings around his eyes and fang-like teeth. He wore plain grey garbs with black pants and a thick purple rope belt was tied in a large knot behind his back.

There was a silence as if a predator was about to strike, but it was broken by…

"Wait, so the woman is a dude? I am confused." Naruto's oblivious question.

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With the rest of the team

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Before Naruto's intervene, he told Sai to look after Haku and Ranmaru and also made two clones to stay with them. He then went ahead made another one to move Sakura out of the battle.

"Is it ok for us to be here, Haku-nee?" Ranmaru asked.

"We are not in the best condition to fight and from the looks of it, we will only burden them if we join like this. Let us recuperate first." Haku replied and took a chakra pill.

All the while, Sai was quite. He had a vague idea of who they were fighting against and the problem was, would he relay the information to them? Danzo did order him to blend in with the genin but he was also ordered not to divulge any secret information. Although this did fall under secret directory but if he was to keep this information hidden, they might not come out of here alive. His thinking was disturbed by,

"Naruto, let me go!" a screaming Sakura.

"Quit it girl!" Haku hissed angrily.

"What are all of you people doing here? We should help Sasuke-kun now!" Sakura was almost screaming again, her panic was obvious to everyone.

"What are you expecting us to do? We are injured and tired, Sai is here covering our back till we recover, _and after that_ we can join the fight." Haku gritted her teeth, she knew Sakura was panicking so she was not thinking clearly but her own inability to do nothing was making her angry as well, "_wait, I can still help Naruto-kun from here." _ Haku stilled to calm her breathing, "Ranmaru-kun, can you have an _eye_ out for Naruto and keep me posted?"

Ranmaru knew what Haku meant, he climbed a tree and took out a monocular, which was just a disguise to hide his ability, and started to inspect the battle.

"Why do we have to cover your back? You are not our teammates." Sakura asked angrily.

"Are you serious?" Haku was dumbfounded hearing what Sakura said but before she could response back.

"Haku-nee." Came Ranmaru's shaking voice.

"_That doesn't sound good_." Sai and Haku thought simultaneously.

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With Naruto and Sasuke

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Sasuke was looking at Naruto, with jaws open. Well even though it was a stupid thing to say considering the moment but it reduced the tension in the air, and he knew that was something they needed.

For Orochimaru, Naruto was an interesting subject. Few weeks before all he thought about him was just another random nobody but after recent development he was quite intrigued towards the blond jinchuriki because of him possessing one of the rarest bloodline. Well after few recent massacre that had been going around the villages lots of bloodlines were becoming rare but Storm Release was a rare one to begin with. Even in Kumo, they didn't have too many of Storm Release users.

His thought process was halted when he saw the swords Naruto was holding.

"Are those Kiba?" Hearing that Naruto filched a bit which answered Orochimaru's question. He grinned, "_Interesting indeed_." Guess for now he would evaluate _both_ of them.

Orochimaru charged at them suddenly, of course he was not going to go with full power, and it seemed they were ready for that. Both of them dashed backwards to gain some distance but Orochimaru was not having that. He increased his speed to catch them but the moment he was close he saw Naruto closing his eyes as Sasuke detonated a flash bomb. Orochimaru escaped that by a mere second using body flicker. When he looked around he saw they were far away, he knew they were not going to run away cause of their teammates but it looked like they were planning something.

He waited a little bit to give them time, it was long since he had some fun and he could make some more time for it. He would mark Sasuke but he was not sure about Naruto because of what he held inside.

"Maybe the powers would fuse? It would be quite fascinating to see the end result." He mused to himself, "Oh the possibilities!"

Thinking that he had given them enough time he took out Kusanagi and charged once again.

Naruto knew from his guts that this guy was far superior to him but right now the options were very limited, so he intercepted him with Kiba. He did have something to give him an upper hand in a situation like this.

Orochimaru was quite surprised when he felt he was being pushed back in sword fighting. It was not one of his best forte but in no way he was an amateur. So it took him few moments to figure out what Naruto was doing. He charged his Kiba with lightning chakra which was not too much but in a way so when Kusanagi was hitting the swords the electricity was pushing his sword back, it was also enhancing the speed of Naruto's sword strikes.

"Clever." He was quite pleased, it was a crafty subtle technique to drop the distance between them in terms of power and speed. But one thing Naruto calculated wrong, this skill would do really good against someone who was a pure swordsman or taijutsu specialist not someone like Orochimaru.

Orochimaru suddenly leaped back and three snakes were shot from his raised arm which wrapped around each other and started spinning like a drill, with extreme speed those hit Naruto head on. Naruto was not ready for something like this, although he tried to block but the power behind that attack was so strong that Naruto flew from his place and was smashed into a tree.

Orochimaru's sense kicked in just in time to see Sasuke throwing a fuma shuriken at him. Orochimaru smirked when he noticed small corners of hidden tags in it. He dodged the weapon with ease but the moment he did lots of Shadow clone charged at him, he waited till they were close and with one good swipe with his stretched Kusanagi he destroyed all of them. To Naruto and Sasuke's frustration, Orochimaru raised his arm and caught another Fuma Shuriken which was coming at him from behind.

"Nicely done both of you. While Naruto-kun here distracted me, you gave one of his clone the real shuriken and henged it into a one. The tags were there for me to see so that instead of catching it I was to dodge it. And the clones that you sent were just to hide the noise when original clone would pop out and throw the shuriken, right?" Orochimaru grinned at Sasuke who was looking down.

"You got everything right except for one thing." Sasuke replied calmly.

"And that would be?" Orochimaru asked in a challenging manner.

Naruto landed beside Sasuke while holding his stomach,

"We never had any fuma shuriken, asshole!" Naruto smirked.

Before Orochimaru could react, the shuriken he was holding transformed back to a clone and it was not just any clone, it was an exploding one and Naruto pumped extra juice into making that.

The clone exploded right at Orochimaru's face.

His body fell from the tree that he was standing on, seeing that Naruto and Sasuke both relaxed.

"What the hell man, I didn't sign up for this kind of shit." Naruto groaned.

"Do you think I did, dumbass? Let's just get out of here, fast." Sasuke sighed.

Their guard was down.

And _that _was their mistake.

Before they knew what was happening, a kunai came towards them dangerously fast. They jumped in time to avoid that but they were separated.

"I had fun kids but my time is running low."

Before Naruto could even land, Orochimaru was there and kneed Naruto who felt all the wind left his lungs, he didn't even had time to retort for the oncoming elbow. The only thing he remembered before blackening out was heading towards a tree.

Sasuke was stunned at their situation although he recovered, he was not expecting this kind of move.

Orochimaru's neck stretched from all the way where he was standing and headed towards Sasuke but before he could move he felt his body getting number.

"Damn his eyes!" Sasuke cursed at getting caught off-guard by Orochimaru's directed bloodlust.

He just hopelessly watched as Orochimaru opened his mouth to show his fangs as his face got closer.

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Moments Before

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"Wow, Naruto-nii's clone exploded at his face!" Ranmaru cheered.

"That should do it. We better get moving fast." Haku released a breath she didn't know from when she was holding. Sai was skeptical because he knew who they were fighting against so there was no way the fight was over so easily.

"Haku-nee, the guy's life force isn't diminishing." Ranmaru's worried voice snapped Haku. If a guy was still alive after taking a powered up exploding clone to his face, they needed to get away from there and fast. Sai was surprised hearing _the way_ Ranmaru described the situation, there was no way an ordinary monocular could show someone's life force.

"Sai, get in there. Now!" Haku took another chakra pill and she knew she would be feeling the side effect soon but for now she didn't have time to care for that. Sai didn't argued as he rushed towards the battlefield.

"Ice release: Ice clone." Haku put extra power into the clone.

"Sakura, carry Ranmaru now. We have to leave as soon as we can." Haku barked at Sakura with bloodlust so that she wouldn't argue back, which worked. Sakura didn't know what was going on but whatever it was, it was bad, very _very_ bad.

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With Naruto and Sasuke

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Naruto blackened out after getting elbowed on his head and he flew towards a tree but before crashing to it Sai caught him in midair.

For Sasuke, before Orochimaru could bit him Sasuke was forced to switch places with Haku's Ice clone through Kawarimi.

And for Orochimaru?

He was the first person ever to get an intense brain freeze as he bit down Haku's ice clone, paralyzing him enough for Sai to throw few Kunai with exploding tags attached, right at his face once again.

As for Sasuke, before he could ask or do anything he was slapped in the face, hard, by Haku.

"What the hell?" Shouted both Sasuke and Sakura.

"Shut up. Are you feeling fine now?" Sasuke understood what she meant, his numbness was gone. He nodded. "Then carry me after I am done with this, I won't be having any chakra left to run fast."

"Ninja Art: Hidden Mist Jutsu." Once again Haku put extra power into her jutsu.

Sai, who came carrying Naruto on his back, just looked at Haku critically.

"Everyone move out now. Fast!" Sasuke ordered as he carried Haku, bridal style. Although Haku wanted to argue but she didn't have any energy left.

So team seven left carrying their backup, team five.

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**With Orochimaru**

Orochimaru underestimated them. Both Sasuke and Naruto, as well as their teammates.

When Naruto joined Sasuke, he never thought that they would be able to force him to use 'Orochimaru-Style Body Replacement Technique'. So after that he didn't stay put as he quickly went to finish them off. He wanted to mark Sasuke first then he would have gone for Naruto.

Not everything works out perfectly.

But now he knew another valuable information, one of Naruto's teammates was a Hyoton user, another rare bloodline and it seemed she was quite good at it, the only question was why she didn't join the fight from the start.

"Maybe she was weakened, Naruto-kun also looked like he just came from a fight. Storm release and Ice release, wonderful! Didn't know Konoha was housing so many rare bloodline users." Orochimaru mused as he was running away.

After Haku's interference, Orochimaru had to use 'Orochimaru-Style Body Replacement Technique' once again and now his chakra reserve was low. Still he wanted to follow them so he could at least mark Sasuke but the mist, made by the girl, was too strong for him to figure out where they went and with his current condition it would be unwise to wonder around the forest aimlessly. He also had informed the sound genins to change their mission. He ordered them, through his messenger snake, to catch the girl alive as she seemed weak. Sasuke and Naruto would be difficult to capture as their status in the village, the last Uchiha and the Jinchuriki. The girl on the other hand was not known, otherwise he would have been notified, meaning Hiruzen was keeping it under the hood for some reason. Maybe he could use this to his advantage.

"I wonder what more surprises this village has to offer me."

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With Anko

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"What do you mean I should wait for others?" Anko was raging, she told Iruka to come and observe the match but it was more like she wanted to pass her time with him. Then when she found out Orochimaru was involved, Iruka stopped Anko from going after him and told few of the guys present there to ask for reinforcement.

"Anko-chan, what are you going to do after you find Orochimaru?" Iruka asked calmly.

"I will make sure the snake bastard goes six feet under." Anko barked.

"Isn't he a Sanin?" Iruka asked evenly once again, which stopped Anko's ranting.

"I know you are strong, very strong but Anko look me in the eyes and tell me you can take down a Sanin." Iruka's voice was calm but it had power behind it.

Anko couldn't look at him in the eyes, she was hoping to catch Orochimaru off guard and use a suicide technique but now she was feeling guilty of thinking that way.

"Let's wait for few Anbu, then you can go in with precaution. If you can't find him then talk to the participators about him. If you go in and die, then the only person will be winning is him." Iruka tried to calm down Anko with his gentle persuasion and from the looks of it, it seemed like it was working.

"Fine, I will go in when our reinforcement comes." Anko huffed, she was never the type to back down from any arguments but Iruka had ways with his words. Suddenly Anko grinned.

"I listened to what you said, so you also have to listen to one of my _requests_." Iruka didn't like the way Anko was smirking but if listening to her needs kept her safe, he would do it willingly.

"Fine, just go easy on me, will ya?" Iruka sighed, a small blush could be seen in his cheeks.

Anko just laughed.

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Somewhere Else

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"Is that mist?"

"Yup, seems like we found our target."

"Do you have her location?"

"Got it, she is heading northwest with some other kids."

"Finally."

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**OMAKE**

Sasuke vs Lee (the fight before the exam)

Sasuke was beyond pissed, after accepting the challenge from Lee both of them came to a secluded place to fight. The fight started well but now it was becoming too much one sided. His eye could follow his movement but his body couldn't.

"With hard work, one can even surpass a prodigy." Lee told in a calm voice which only fueled Sasuke's rage. His anger started clouding his judgment but suddenly he remembered Haku's words '_instead of analyzing the situation you fell for my taunting'_.

Sasuke took a deep breath and waited for Lee who came straight towards him with a flying kick but Sasuke body flickered to get some distance. He started taking deep breath to calm his mind down.

He looked at Lee and started thinking of his options, taijutsu was a no go and for ninjutsu he was pretty sure he would only be wasting chakra as hitting Lee with a jutsu seemed quite close to impossible now. Then the only thing left for him was the third possibility but before that he needed perfect timing. The moment he saw Lee charged at him once again, he took out two kunai at each hand and spun around which Lee was not prepared for as his kick, his weight took the kunai cut, and his punch, luckily he pulled out in time so didn't get deep cut, was blocked simultaneously.

"Nicely done, Sasuke-san. If I was not careful I would have been injured badly." Lee said in a happy tone, "So let's get serious, shall we?"

"Well, I wouldn't have it any other way." Sasuke replied back calmly.

Suddenly Lee was right in front of Sasuke and looked him at the _eye_, and then in an instant he spun and kick Sasuke with enough force that made him go flying.

"Shadow of the Dancing Leaf." Lee was right behind Sasuke but instead of panicking Sasuke was rather calm.

"Get ready to see the power of youth." Lee's bandages started to unwrap but before he could execute his attack, a kunai came and stopped it, abruptly ending the match.

Lee's sensei, Gai came and lectured Lee about youth and honor which Sasuke didn't listen, he just left the area with his teammates.

"By the way Lee, I hope you know that if I didn't stop the fight it would have a devastating end result, not the one you are thinking." Gai became serious the moment Sasuke and his teammates left.

"What do you mean, Gai-sensei?" Lee asked curiously.

"When you used Shadow of the Dancing Leaf, you didn't go _behind_ Sasuke rather you were _in front_ of him." Gai replied back.

"How? No way…." Lee stopped when Gai put his hand up.

"I think he put you under a genjutsu but it is up to you to find out when he did my youthful student. Learn from this fight, the battle would have gone either way meaning you are not as strong as your youthful mind believes you to be." Gai pointed out.

Lee saluted Gai and started talking, extremely loud, about youthfulness which Gai joined as well.

.

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**Done**

**Till next time, guys.**


	21. Chapter 21 : Forest of Death III

**Hello there everyone, this is the last part of Forest of Death, hope you enjoy it.**

**On a side note, I have fixed chap 1 – 3 and soon will do a few more of the early chapters.**

**Now onto the story, **

_**Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto.**_

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Sasuke was looking at Ranmaru who was treating his teammates' wounds. Naruto was out cold but he didn't have any serious injuries. For Haku, over-consumption of chakra pills in short period of time was taking its toll. But fortunately it was not severe, nothing a good night sleep could not fix.

"Mind telling me what happened before coming to us? You guys were not in a fresh state, you know?" Sasuke asked as he looked around to see Sakura putting traps all around and Sai drawing something, but they seemed to perk up as well when they heard what Sasuke asked.

Ranmaru was debating with himself, unlike Naruto or Haku, he didn't know Team Seven that well so he wasn't sure whether to tell them the whole story or not.

As if Sasuke understood the little genin's inner turmoil, he relaxed his composure, "Not that I am complaining, without your team I am pretty sure I would have been in a messed up situation," He looked at his teammates and chuckled a bit, "Our whole team I suppose, for that, thank you." Sasuke told in a sincere voice. He might have a bit ego but he wasn't blind. He knew without Naruto's help that guy would have done, god knew what, to him and without Haku they wouldn't have escaped.

Ranmaru smiled, for the first time after coming in the forest, then he nodded as he motioned Sasuke to sit. If his team risked their lives to save this team, it definitely meant Naruto and Haku knew them or at least Sasuke quite well. He told him everything that happened to them, their idea of waiting for the exhausted teams, their encounter with the suspicious people and their retreat. Sai knew who the mysterious people were after hearing the description. Danzo told him about this other team's mission just in case they didn't collide with each other.

"Whose idea was it to wait near the tower?" Sasuke asked curiously.

"It was Haku-nee's." Ranmaru answered in a timid voice but was surprised when Sasuke laughed softly, even his teammates were a bit taken aback by this action.

"_That girl, no matter what I do she is always few steps ahead of me."_ Sasuke chuckled inwardly as he stole a small glance at the said girl, although he and Haku had the same idea but the place where they wanted to wait for other teams were different, Haku's place was far more effective and a better choice but unfortunately both of their team encountered unwanted circumstances, but even then her team came and saved his.

"Take a rest Ranmaru, both of our team had a crazy day and it's just the _first day_ in this hellhole. Tomorrow we decide what we can do." With that Sasuke left Ranmaru to talk with his team.

"What's wrong Sakura?" Sasuke asked when he came to his team, she was acting quite fidgety.

"Team five's strongest members are down." Sai said in an emotionless voice, Sasuke didn't like where it was going.

"So?" He asked, keeping his voice neutral.

"We won't be having any chances like this, weren't you the one who was waiting for an exhausted team to strike?" Sai replied back. Sasuke didn't say anything, he just looked at Sakura,

"What about you?" Sasuke asked in a calm tone, hearing his tone Sakura relaxed a bit as she thought Sasuke would be angry after listening to this.

"Sasuke-kun, our team is exhausted after the fight back there. I also think it is best if we take their scroll. It is, after all, everyone against everyone so I am pretty sure they won't hold it against us. Also if their scroll is same, then maybe we can exchange it with some other team?" Sakura voiced her opinion.

Sasuke was quite for a while, then he looked up, his face was calm as ever.

"So let me get this straight, you want us to backstab the team that came to _save_ us from that freak although they were exhausted themselves, just because they are in vulnerable position now?" Sasuke asked, hearing that Sakura looked away with a guilty face but Sai was calm as ever.

"Our objective is to get the other scroll no matter what, if we are to pass this part of the exam, dickless. Your emotion will cause us to fail." Sai replied back calmly.

Hearing that, Sasuke closed his eyes. He opened them back with Sharingan blazing.

"Sai, sometimes I feel safer around enemies rather than you. From the time we spent, I understood one thing and that is you are the type that will backstab even their_ own teammates _in order to get the goal done." Sasuke said in a cold voice, hearing that both of his teammates flinched but for different reason. Sakura was shocked because she never heard Sasuke using such a cold emotionless tone and Sai was shocked because Sasuke almost figured out the way _a root_ worked and now he was sure that Sasuke knew more than he let on. Feeling that things would spiral out of hand, both Sasuke and Sai backed away. Sasuke headed back to where Team Five was but before he went, he looked back at Sakura,

"I expected more than that." He whispered harshly.

Hearing someone coming, Ranmaru came out from the tree trunk and was surprised when he saw it was Sasuke.

"Is there something wrong, Sasuke-san?" Ranmaru asked.

Sasuke just smiled and shook his head, "Nothing, just had a bad argument with my team. Is it ok if I stay here for the night?" Sasuke asked politely.

"Sure, if that is ok with you." Ranmaru replied back happily, hearing that Sasuke softened up a bit. He went inside the trunk to see Naruto was still unconscious and Haku was asleep, they both needed a good long rest after what happened.

"Why don't you go to sleep, Ranmaru? I will take the first watch." Sasuke suggested, Ranmaru nodded slowly as he went to sleep. In a minute he was asleep showing he was tired as well.

"Great, now I am saving another team from my own." Sasuke just shook his head as he sat down.

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XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

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**With Hinata**

Hinata was looking into the woods through the tower window. They were the second fastest team to complete the current part of the test, this year. But their team knew who to thank for this accomplishment; Gaara, Naruto and their lady luck. Before the test was about to begin, Naruto came to her and warned her about Gaara. He said the sand genin was radiating bloodlust like a lunatic and for some reason Naruto was getting the feeling that he was one of the strongest in the chunin exam, not a good combination which Hinata agreed as well.

But when she told her team, Kiba wanted to go for the sand team first in order to show that Naruto was wrong. Hinata and Shino, who started to have respect towards the blond genin, was able to stop him from doing so but they still ended up getting close to the sand team and for some reason Hinata thought it was Kiba's fault. But if it wasn't for her Byakugan, they would have seen the carnage caused by the said sand genin at front row seats. Hinata warned her teammates before they could get any closer and when the sand team left after crushing few other teams, they went to investigate the place hoping that they would be able to find any stray scroll and it seemed lady luck was on their side.

They got the scroll they needed but instead of rushing towards the tower, they made sure to go cautiously just in case they didn't cross paths with the sand team. They reached the tower in five hours after the start of the exam whereas the sand team finished in two.

Even now her teammates were making sure to avoid the sand team specially Gaara.

"Hope you are ok, Naruto-kun." With that Hinata went to train in one of the spare room.

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With Naruto

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Naruto woke up groggily, he felt like someone hammered his head ruthlessly. He looked around to see Haku and Ranmaru was asleep but was quite surprised to see Sasuke at the entrance of wherever they were.

"Yo, teme." Naruto greeted Sasuke weekly.

"Glad to see you up dobe." Sasuke chuckled as he looked back to see a fully awake Naruto.

"Guess we survived, huh?" Naruto stood up as he started to stretch.

"Thanks to your team, at the end Haku-chan used her _powers_ to save us." Sasuke whispered at which Naruto smiled but raised an eyebrow when he heard how Sasuke addressed Haku, "By the way, I hope you are fresh and energized because it would help me a lot if you take over the watch now. Need some sleep here." Sasuke chuckled weekly.

Naruto laughed softly as he motioned Sasuke to come over, he went out to see where they were and where Sasuke's teammates were. He looked up to see that the sky was clearing up bit by bit indicating it was past dawn.

Naruto saw Sai giving him a weird look from where he was and Sakura was sleeping under another tree.

"Wait, why is Sasuke with us rather than his team?" Naruto thought, he made some shadow clones and told them to survey the area and after that he went back inside to talk with Sasuke but found him asleep. Before going to keep guard, an idea hit him. He grinned evilly and looked at Haku.

"Sorry, Haku-nee but this is too tempting to pass up." Naruto rubbed his hand like an evil mastermind.

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Somewhere Else

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"So what's the plan, Dosu?"

"We go in fast, strike hard, grab the girl and disappear."

"That's a nice idea but why the long face Kin?"

"Zaku, The idea Dosu has is quite good but I am still worried as to why Orochimaru-sama suddenly changed the plan from assassination to capture? Killing someone is quite easier than to catching the target alive. How are we going to get out kidnapping a Konoha genin _inside_ Konoha?"

"We follow what Orochimaru-sama ordered, and as for your fears Kin, those are also taken care of. We will meet another person who will help us moving the target after we capture her."

"Let's get going then. You have an idea as to where they are, right?"

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Sometimes Later with Kiri teams

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"So, now then all of us are here, let us go through what he have to do." A person with grey hair tied in a ponytail with normal Kiri attire told his teammates as they were rushing forward.

"Bodoro, Anita found out there are two teams resting where our target is." Said a guy who is a bit chubby and also taller than the rest of them.

"Todo, we can't fail this. If they are resting it means they are tired and weak now and it is the perfect chance to strike them. We take the girl alive and if other members resist, kill them." The first guy named Bodoro told others and he looked at another team who was slightly behind, "Amori, take your team and keep guard here just in case no other team crosses path with us and if you hear explosion, come _immediately_."

The guy named Amori nodded as he motioned his team to slow down.

"Time to get Zabuza's '_weapon_'."

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XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

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**With Naruto and others**

It had been long since Sasuke got some good sleep, for some reason he _felt_ comfortable now. He tightened his hold on the soft pillow his head was buried on, it had a nice fragrance which soothed his heart, something that he needed for a long time. He dismissed the distant squeak and muffled laughter,

"Having a _nice time_ sleeping, teme?" Naruto asked as if he found something funny.

He just grunted and buried his head deeper into the pillow earning another squeak.

"Umm, Sasuke-san, I am glad that you are having a _good time_ but could I have _my_ body back? I kind of need it to pass the exam you know." Haku whispered softly.

Sasuke's eyes flew open with activated Sharingan, which was something he shouldn't have done as the scene before him was now forever got engraved in his mind.

Sasuke was hugging Haku like a plush toy while using her _assets _as pillows effectively trapping her upper body and he positioned himself in a way that half of his body was on top of her and using his legs he trapped Haku's lower body. And from where he was he had a good close-up view of Haku's assets, although it was covered, it was still no less stimulating, and when he looked up he saw Haku was trying to give him a harsh glare but with her blushing cheeks and quivering lips it looked more sexy than angry.

Sasuke jumped back as if he was zapped by a lightning bolt but he forgot where he was, the tree trunk that they were inside was small so he hit the top wall and fell back to here he was before, but now he was fully on top of her while his face was closer to hers.

"Sa-Sasuke-san!" Haku gritted her teeth as she closed her eyes and started to count to ten, sixth time.

In a flash, Sasuke got up _cautiously _and without even looking at anyone he was gone.

A bit later, Naruto came out first holding his stomach while still laughing, Ranmaru came next whose face was as red as his dojutsu and finally Haku came out; her face was _less_ red than Ranmaru but her eyes were closed and she was holding needles.

"_Not a good sign_." Sasuke gulped.

"Wait! I don't know what happened back there but I swear I was sleeping far away from you." Sasuke told quickly, every second was essential now.

"Umm, Sasuke-san. You didn't move from your place." A bit red Ranmaru shyly whispered, hearing that Sasuke's eyebrows shot up, Haku's face reddened more and Naruto's laughter died down. Haku glared at Ranmaru who gulped.

"When Naruto-nii woke up, I woke up as well but not fully, I don't know what they talked about but it seemed Naruto-nii wanted to guard. After that Sasuke-san slept in front of me and I went back to sleep again, to me it seemed he was still at his place when….." Ranmaru couldn't finish his sentence but everybody got the gist of what he wanted to tell.

"See, ask Naruto as well, there is no way for us to end up like this unless….." Sasuke voice went from desperation to understanding as he looked sharply at Naruto who was sweating bullets.

Seeing Sakura and Sai approaching, Haku sighed, "Let's just drop this subject. It. Never. Happened!" Haku said in an icy voice, chewing the words, and all three nodded their head vigorously in agreement.

"What happened?" Sakura asked in an edgy tone, she was not in a good mood after last night's confrontation.

"Nothing!" All three boys answered simultaneously.

"So, what now?" Sai asked.

"Now you are going to come with us, 'Zabuza's weapon'." A voice spoke a bit far away from them. The moment Team Five heard those two particular word, they froze. Haku looked up to see three Kiri Nin were looking down at them. But before they could even move or do anything, an angry growl was heard.

"Fuck off! Blow 'em up." Naruto angrily hissed, suddenly few branches of the tree around the Kiri nin transformed into Naruto's clone, the problem for Kiri nin was that they were explosive ones. The poor Kiri nin didn't even knew what hit them as the clones exploded around them. Sasuke didn't wait one bit as he soon followed up Naruto,

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique." Sasuke threw his jutsu at the center of the explosion causing a massive blast.

The rest of their teammates were dumbfounded, even Haku and Sai. When the Kiri nin said those words, Haku knew the things were going to go from bad to worse and for Sai, it answered his suspicions, but both of them were thinking of how to get out of the situation without complicating things but it seemed Naruto and Sasuke had that covered. It looked like they were more of a 'Strike first Talk later' type of people.

"That was kind of…." Ranmaru spoke but,

"Anti-climactic?" Sakura finished for him.

"So when did you put the surveillance clone Naruto-kun?" Haku asked while releasing a long breath.

"When I was guarding the place." Naruto said as he kept releasing short breaths to calm himself down.

"So, what now?" Sai asked again.

The moment he finished that sentence, two more teams came down from different directions. One team had sound headband and another had Kiri headbands. There was a pregnant pause as if it was a standoff between three villages. The new Kiri nin looked at their former comrades and their demeanor hardened, sensing the danger Haku glanced at Naruto who was watching intently at the new intruders and suddenly he put his arms up as an act of surrendering. Everyone except Sasuke gasped, well Sai was technically emotionless so he didn't count.

"Ku ku ku, what have we here?" The voice froze almost all the examinees presented there, even Sai this time.

Orochimaru was standing few trees behind the sound team looking exactly like how they had seen him the last time.

"Orochimaru-sama." Kin whispered. Dosu and the rest of the sound team bowed immediately to the snake senin, if he came there by himself it meant whatever he intended to do, it must be important.

Orochimaru looked at Naruto, there was a small pause and then he smiled. He looked at Kiri nin,

"Would you mind backing off? I have some business with the pests down there." Orochimaru chuckled wickedly.

"We don't want any trouble, we just want the black haired girl and we will leave." The leader of the new Kiri nin said but his voice was shaking with a hint of desperation, they knew who they were dealing with here.

"Fine, just scram." Orochimaru replied in a demotivated voice.

The sound nin looked at each other but said nothing, they knew better to question Orochimaru's judgment.

Haku went towards the Kiri team, the moment she was in arm's reach they grabbed her, made her sit down and circled around her. They would put some chakra restriction on her fast and then they would leave, fast. At the same time, Orochimaru landed in front of the Sound team. Before Dosu could ask his leader what he wanted, everyone's attention was grabbed by a laughter.

Naruto was laughing softly as he slowly started to put his hand down. Both Sound and Kiri tensed but they didn't expect what was about to come.

Naruto stopped his hand in the midway while directing each hand at each team and was making a gesture as if he was pointing _something _with his index finger,

"Boom." No sooner he said that, Orochimaru in front of the Sound team exploded, while Haku was Kawarimi'ed by another Naruto clone who self-destructed immediately.

"And, they are out." Naruto chuckled slowly, everyone was taken aback by Naruto's attitude. It was not the goofy, cheerful Naruto but someone else. _Someone_ who would do _anything_ to protect his _family._

Sometimes ago, Haku told Naruto what happened to her family and what was happening in Kiri at that time. Still now there were people who would kill people with bloodline limit whether they are infants or innocent women and would go any length to kill as well. So, when Naruto heard that, in a way, he understood why Zabuza didn't take Haku with him. Now, the moment he heard the Kiri nin saying 'Zabuza's weapon' his mind showed him the worst possibility, they said with such hatred that Naruto thought they knew about Haku's bloodline. He was not having his new found sister like figure taken away from him.

"_No one is touching my precious people."_

Naruto gave Haku reassurance and put his hand up to draw the attention of their attackers and when he was able to draw it, Naruto's remaining explosive clones and shadow clones slowly emerged from their hiding spots and few went behind the Kiri team. Being a part of Naruto, one of the explosive clone even went further as he disguised himself as their former enemy. He was quite surprised when the sound nin addressed him as 'Orochimaru' but he was able to hide the surprise in his face and when his eyes met with his boss, he winked at him so that he understood who 'he' really was. And for Naruto's part when he saw everything was in position, the Orochimaru disguise tactic was a plus, he didn't even hesitated for a bit to give the command to explode at the danger zone knowing full well that his decision would kill few people but to him it was either them or his 'precious friends'.

It seemed hours had been passed by, till Naruto's demeanor softened up,

"Ranmaru, can you go check with Haku-nee." Hearing his easy-going voice again, Ranmaru smiled up at him and ran to find Haku who was being guarded by few of Naruto's clone.

"We will check the other team," Sasuke said as he motioned his teammates to go, "They may be dead, dobe but your tactic saved us. Remember it was either them or us and the way they were radiating bloodlust I am pretty sure even if we were to surrender they would have made sure we were dead," Sasuke looked at Haku, "Or worse. So don't fret too much over it." With that Sasuke went towards his teammates.

Naruto looked at the retreating back of the last Uchiha and gave an appreciative nod with a small smile.

"That was a good plan," Haku smiled when she and Ranmaru reached Naruto, Naruto made a small motion and all the clones dispersed.

"Was it a wise thing to dispel your clones, Naruto-nii?" Ranmaru asked urgently, who would have blame him, they were saved twice at a row, miraculously, by the clones.

"No, Naruto did the right decision. The explosions made too much noise, we should move fast, and," Haku grinned, "One of the Kiri nin had the scroll we needed. So better if we just go straight toward the tower now." Haku finished and looked at the approaching Team Seven.

"I am guessing you guys got your scroll?" Sasuke asked in a knowing manner. Haku gave him an icy smile and nodded, Sasuke looked away sheepishly.

"_Damn, she is still pissed about that. Naruto, I will get you for this," _Sasuke angrily started to make plans on how to make the blond suffer.

"So…." Sai couldn't finish as he was bombarded with angry glares,

"Don't finish that sentence." Sasuke gritted his teeth.

"Guys, if both of our team finished the objectives than we should head towards the tower. _Immediately._" Haku urged both teams, all the members agreed hurriedly.

They packed up in less than five minutes and made a run towards the tower hoping that no more _troubles_ would come along the way.

And for once their wish was granted.

After reaching the tower without any incident and figuring out the riddle behind the scrolls, both of the team were led inside by their respective teachers. A bit later, after giving some encouragement and advice, their teachers left.

"Hayate-san." Naruto rushed towards the tokubetsu jonin, "What are you doing here?"

"I am one of the proctors of the exam, Naruto." Hayate smiled, they knew each other from Yugao, "So your team passed, guess that means you are the fourth team," Hayate looked at Team Seven who were heading towards an empty room upstairs, "Teams, that passed the second portion of the exam. Wow and it is only the second day." Hayate chuckled.

"Fourth team? Who are the other ones?" Haku asked politely.

"The first team is the Suna one and surprisingly they finished in just two hours, broke the previous record by two hours, and then Team Eight, they finished in five hours. And then one of the Kumo team just came early in the morning and now you and Team Seven. I must say this year is packing with talented kids." Hayate smiled at the team, Naruto was glad to hear that Hinata's team finished and from the tone of Hayate's voice it sounded like they didn't get any serious injuries.

"Why not you guys go and rest? It must have been tiring and there are still three more days left." Hayate suggested.

"I am going to get a room. Naruto, are you going to look for Hinata?" Haku asked.

"Nah, not now. Maybe later." Naruto gave a small smile but Haku stayed long enough with Naruto to know that it was a fake smile and she knew what was the cause of it.

"Alright." Haku replied and motioned Ranmaru to come with her, when she and Ranmaru was out of Naruto's sight.

"Ranmaru, can you go and get a room for our team? I have to find someone." Haku requested to their young teammate.

"Sure, it is about Naruto-nii, right?" Ranmaru asked, Haku smiled and nodded softly.

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With Naruto

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Naruto was sitting in the corner of a hallway, he was looking at his index finger as if he was examining it.

The first time Naruto killed, he still hesitated, and some might consider that as an act of desperation. There were bandits attacking the village but the problems were not with their numbers but with their determination to kill. He still remembered his first kills, he saw one bandit going for a kid no older than Ranmaru, the bandit pinned him down and was going to strike him with a sword. Naruto threw one shuriken at his wrist and he dropped the sword but in a rage he used the other hand to choke the boy. Before Naruto could go help, he saw few other bandits approaching at a farmer who was guarding his house, probably with his family inside. Naruto knew, either way, his decision would cost life. So he went for the lesser evil, he killed the guy choking the kid, by throwing a kunai at his head, and killed few of the approaching bandits towards the farmer by hitting some of their vitals with his shuriken. He still felt remorse after he had done the deed.

But this time, there was no remorse, no hesitation, no pity, nothing. He didn't know what came over him but at some point he felt his instinct took over. When his head was cleared, he was shocked to see what he had done but didn't have the courage to face it, that's why he didn't see for himself the bloodshed he caused.

He didn't know what to feel.

A soft hand to his cheek brought him back to the reality.

His eyes met the lovely lavender eyes he loved so much.

In an instant, Hinata saw everything through his eyes. The desperation, the fear, the self-loathing. As if he understood that Hinata was seeing through his soul, he averted his eyes.

"Hey there, Hinata-chan, heard that you passed the exam super fast. That's awesome." Naruto said with a fake smile, still not meeting Hinata's eyes.

Hinata smiled softly, she gently cradled Naruto's head in her chest while with one hand started stroking his blond hair. Naruto was stunned, he didn't know what to think of this situation but a moment later when it started to sooth his raging heart, he let it out.

Naruto held Hinata tighter, as if letting her go would be his end, and broke down.

"It's alright, Naruto-kun." Hinata kept saying it gently to calm down her blond knight.

In a corner, Haku smiled and left to give some privacy to them.

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**OMAKE**

The Bet

It was quite rowdy for a jonin bar, but because of the chunin exam next day, most of the jonin was there to make bets on teams, even some Anbu were there as well.

Yamato was feeling out of place as he never did anything like this, he was the youngest jonin around and even in the time at Anbu, he tended to avoid this kind of situations.

"I know my team will pass the preliminary rounds but I think for reaching finals, Shikamaru might be able to pull it off." Asuma said as he hurriedly put of his cigarette when he saw Kurenai approaching.

"Well, if he is anything like his father, he might quit if he finds it too _troublesome_." Kurenai chuckled, "But I can bet that from my team at least _one_ person will be going to the finals." Kurenai finished with surety.

"Well, I think all of my youthful students can make it to the finals. I know their skills and abilities and I can assure all of you that they are strong enough to face any kind of challenges." Gai proudly boasted.

"Hmm, interesting but don't be so sure Gai. Even for my team I will follow Kurenai-san's assumption. _One_ of my student will be going to the final." Kakashi gave his signature eye-smile.

"But my all of my students can wipe the floor with any of your students' _and_ reach the finals easily." Yamato chuckled slowly but instantly he shut his mouth, he nervously looked around to see all his senior jonins were looking at him, some cheekily and some with astonishment.

"So who wants to bet _against _our youngest member?" Kakashi suggested a bit too eagerly and almost everyone raised their hands.

"Oh! You gotta be shitting me!"

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**And Cut.**

**Sorry for the anti-climactic fights but I focused more on building Naruto's and Sasuke's character, hope you liked it. **

**Next chap will be about the preliminaries and I intend to put all the fights in one chapter although I will skip the canon fights.**

**Till Next Time.**


	22. Chapter 22 : Preliminaries

**Hello everyone, I am back with a quick update. Before I start,**

** : for Root it is working illegally and as for Sasuke I decided to swap his lightning element with earth because Naruto already has lightning so I wanted to see if I can come with new jutsu and style with earth, so I will give Sasuke earth element but it will not be his primary element.**

**Dustbunnyqyeen: hahaha, just wait and see. I have one attack on my mind.**

**thor94: Thnx bro but your question will be answered in the next few chaps**

**Ryuujin96: Thank you, your review is always helpful and motivating for me. As for the fights, thank you for liking them. Not all the fight will be like this but like you said as a ninja sometimes fights are suppose to be anti-climatic, I will see what else I can come up with considering battles. **

**Hee-Ho Master, Icesetokill, deusnow, ZyiareHellsing, FinalKingdomHearts, buterflypuss, Rose Tiger, raynisia….. Thank you for liking and reviewing. **

_**Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto.**_

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Haku was going toward the kitchen. She needed to assemble all the events that had transpired at the forest which was anything but normal, but she wouldn't be able to do that with a hungry stomach and as she came closer to kitchen area.

"That guy was definitely jonin level. Did you see how he traded blows with me and was able to get away even from you?" One voice said grumpily, it was a tad bit loud. Hearing that Haku stopped.

"But his others teammates were not that much, although they had peculiar techniques I must say." A girly voice spoke up. Haku leaned toward the wall in a relaxed manner, she wasn't eavesdropping, well the way they were talking there was no need to.

"Regardless, that doesn't add up. Remember he said he failed the exam five times, or was it six times?" Another voice replied but it was calmer than others.

"I don't know, maybe to spy on other villages' teams? D where are you going?" The girly voice asked someone.

Haku opened his eyes to see a tanned boy, as tall as her, was standing near her, his headband indicated he was from Kumo.

"What have we here? A pretty sexy eavesdropper, are all Konoha genin like this, doing their work behind the shadow like a _rat_?" The boy huskily whispered.

"Who needs to eavesdrop when you people are talking with that _volume_ in a public place?" Haku calmly replied at which the boy grinned more, "Also I thought a true shinobi works behind the shadow, didn't know your village has a different viewpoint."

"Cool and Hot, I like it." The boy chuckled.

"Is there anything wrong?" A new voice asked, both of them turn around to see it was Sasuke, before D could retort, his other teammates came out.

"She is right, D. We were loud and it is a public place, let's go." C said in a voice which sounded more like an order.

"Guess we have to leave it at that." D chuckled and left with his teammates.

"Just one problem after another." Haku sighed when Kumo team left.

"Anything I should know?" Sasuke asked but Haku's eyes told him to drop it as she seemed still pissed about what happened in the forest.

"Look, I am sorry and you know that it was not my doing." Sasuke said but it was more like whining at which Haku smirked.

"Yes but it was _you_ who had a _good time_, isn't that right?" Haku chuckled as she went inside the kitchen. Sasuke follower her.

"How about this, if I beat…" Sasuke coughed, "_defeat_ you, then would you forgive me?" Sasuke asked, Haku looked at Sasuke and raised an eyebrow. She came and stood near him, at this distance anyone could see Haku was few inches taller.

"Do you think you can take me on, _little_ Uchiha?" Haku said sarcastically but in a joking manner at which Sasuke smirked.

"I think I can take you on, at _anything._" Sasuke replied calmly.

"It sounds like you are implying _something_ else." Haku grinned as she shortened the distance between them and to her surprise Sasuke did that as well.

"Maybe I am." Sasuke chuckled softly and then backed away.

"Cheeky _boy_." Haku laughed softly as she took some food from the counter but before leaving she turned around,

"But I look forward to it."

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XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

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**Three Days Later**

"When was the last time a preliminary round was held?" Kakashi asked as he looked down at the gathered genins who were listening to the Hokage, some complaining about the sudden pre-test for the third part of the exam.

"Long ago, but the best part is all the rookies passed." Kurenai replied, Team Five, Team Seven, Team Eight, Team Nine and Team ten are the Konoha teams that passed and from other villages, the Suna team and one Kumo team passed.

"Yes but I think this is the first time that dad has called the clan heads to come and watch the preliminary." Asuma added and it was true. After the second day, the proctors of the exam knew that they had to hold a preliminary round to cut out some genins and seeing the opportunity the Hokage called the clan heads to come and watch the fights as most of the teams that passed had clan heirs and heiresses.

"But the most youthful prospect is that all the teams came before the fifth day, their youthful spirits hold much more potential than us in our time." Gai gave his thoughts and everyone had to agree.

"So, Yamato; I am sure you remember the bet. You can still back out, you know?" Kakashi gave his signature smile to the youngest jonin.

"Back out my ass. I will never hear the end of it, if I do. But, I have faith in my students. Kakashi-sempai." Yamato grunted.

All the other jonins laughed.

"Guess the old man finished his speech." Asuma pointed out.

After his speech, the Hokage motioned everyone to return to the waiting area to wait for their turns. He came and took his place with the clan heads. It was actually Iruka's idea to call for the clan heads. He asked Hokage if, at least, the parents could come and watch their children's fights. It would help them and the participants as well. Hokage pondered for some time but when he heard that only on third day, six teams made it to the next round, he went with the idea. The seventh team made it on the fourth day but the surprising part was no other team came after them, and it was the first time ever that the second part of the exam finished before the time limit.

"So who thinks their child is going to the next round?" Hokage said in a light manner to the clan heads, it was rare to have all the clan heirs and heiresses in same year, same exam.

"I think my pup can pull it through, he better be." Tsume said.

"Maybe but I still think my daughter will win it all." Inoichi said boastfully.

"Well for my son he can only win if it is not that troublesome." Shikaku said at which almost everyone laughed.

"Let's hope for the best, shall we?" Choza added.

Hiashi and Shibi was quiet but from their gesture anyone could tell that they were also expecting their respective child to win.

"So let's not wait anymore, shall we?" Hokage chuckled.

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Waiting Area

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"So, you guys think you can pull it off?" Yamato asked although his voice was sincere but there was a bit of desperation.

"Hope so," Haku replied but then looked at Naruto and whispered, "Stop mopping around, you had your _Hinata-time_ as much as you could."

Naruto just grunted, after the first day Hinata tried her best to be around with him alone as much as she could but Kiba was getting in the way most of the time.

Hinata looked at Naruto sadly, she knew that Naruto was still hurting over that incident. After the exam, she would spend some quality time with her boyfriend to make sure he would have his cheerful side back but for now she had preliminary to concentrate on.

"First Match, Ranmaru vs Chouji."

"Right off the bat." Yamato shook his head.

"Come on, don't worry. You will do just fine." Haku said in a supportive voice, she took out a kunai and gave it to Ranmaru, "You might need it."

"Ranmaru," Ranmaru looked at Naruto who was finally had a cheerful face, Naruto knew that right now his teammates needed him, he grinned softly at Ranmaru, "I think this might help you." With that he whispered something.

"Come on Chouji, beat the crap out of that snotty brat. He is new and shouldn't have enough experience like us." Ino said. Shikamaru and Asuma nodded supportively at Chouji as well.

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**Ranmaru vs Chouji **

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Ranmaru and Chouji went down to the arena, Hayate looked at each of them.

"Ready?" Both nodded.

"Begin."

Chouji dashed back was confused when he saw Ranmaru looking at him in surprised state.

"What's wrong?" Chouji asked defensively.

"No I was surprised that you were able to move so fast despite being, _fat._" Ranmaru replied.

There was a pin drop silence.

"WHAT WAS THAT YOU SNOTTY BRAT?!" Chouji shouted but as soon as he did, Ranmaru made a ram seal and his eyes glowed, most of the spectators noticed but the angry opponent did not.

Chouji concentrated chakra around him and suddenly he grew big and then he shouted,

"Human Bullet Tank."

His arms and head went inside and he started to rotate dangerously and charged toward Ranmaru at extreme speed but to everyone's surprise he just went passed him and was smashed straight to the wall.

"What's wrong, too _fat _to move properly?" Ranmaru teased once again.

Chouji saw red, he heard Shikamaru was shouting something but he ignored it and charged once again, but to his confusion, once again he was collided with a wall. He ended his jutsu to see what was wrong, he turned around, albeit a bit wobbly, to see Ranmaru throwing a kunai at him and it seemed like he didn't move an inch.

Chouji dodged the kunai easily but the moment it hit the wall near him, smokes started to come out from him.

"What, smoke…." Was the last thing Chouji was able to say before he was out cold.

Hayate just looked at knocked out Chouji and smirked slightly.

"Winner, Ranmaru."

Naruto and Haku was cheering for Ranmaru while Yamato held out a victory sign to Asuma and Kakashi.

"Wait what happened?" Ino asked, she still didn't seem to gasp what had happened at the arena.

"It's simple," Everyone looked at Kurenai, "Overly-excitement and Pure rage makes one person vulnerable to Genjutsu. Ranmaru-kun used that concept wisely, he is really good with Genjutsu so he didn't need much hand seals and I think he pumped up chakra before even going to the arena, "The last part was a lie Kurenai told to keep Ranmaru's bloodline hidden.

"So when he taunted Chouji, it was easy for him to use such a simple genjutsu." Shikamaru ended the explanation.

"But why didn't Chouji dodge properly when he saw the kunai with the tag attached?" Sakura asked.

"Probably because he used another genjutsu at Chouji so that he doesn't see the tag." Kakashi replied back, his book was gone. It was an exciting match and it was only the beginning.

"I would suggest everyone to get it together." Asuma added, Gai was having some _youthful _moments with his mini-me so he didn't comment anything.

Ranmaru came back at the waiting area and went straight toward Asuma.

"Asuma-sensei, when Chouji-san wakes up, please tell him that I am sorry for calling him that. I did it to win but it was still a bad thing to say." Ranmaru said while bowing which surprised everyone.

"Don't worry kid, I will tell him that but I think he will like it if you tell him yourself when you can." Asuma chuckled as he ruffled Ranmaru's hair.

"Next match is beginning."

Everyone looked to see who they were.

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**Kankuro vs Sasuke Uchiha**

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Both of them didn't waste any time as they came to the arena.

Sasuke tried not to pay any heed to Sakura and Ino, but it was hard with all those loud voices.

Hayate looked at each of the participants,

"Ready."

Both nodded,

"Begin."

Kankuro smirked at Sasuke who didn't move an inch from his place but was watching his every move intently with his Sharingan.

"I know what those eyes can do but I also know that your eyes are not fully awakened." Kankuro's smirk widened when he saw Sasuke twitching; he took out two Kunai and threw them at Kankuro one by one.

The path of the Kunai was simple so Kankuro simple moved to the side but then the surprise came.

The trajectory of the first Kunai changed when the second kunai hit it which hit, surprisingly, the object that Kankuro was carrying.

Fresh blood and scream came out from there.

Real Kankuro came out from there and the other one changed it's form to that of a puppet.

"How did you know?" Kankuro hissed. Sasuke didn't say anything as he started going through hand seals real fast. Seeing that Kankuro readied his puppet but to his surprise but Sasuke was done all he did was shouted,

"Activate."

Kankuro looked around nervously, suddenly he started to feel dizzy.

"What did you do, bastard?" Kankuro yelled as he made his puppet charge at Sasuke who easily dodged it.

"I put some rare poison in the Kunai which I just activated. Feeling dizzy and having problems with eye-sight?" Sasuke added coolly.

Kankuro looked at the Kunai, he threw it far when he took it out and with the poison effecting now he couldn't see clearly but something was on the Kunai.

"One more seal and the poison will be lethal, surrender and I will give you the antidote." Sasuke said as he made another hand seal.

Kankuro hesitated for a moment but when he started to wobble,

"Fine, you win." Kankuro hissed.

"Winner Sasuke Uchiha." Hayate proclaimed.

"Where is my antidote, fucker?" Kankuro yelled.

"Just say, Kai and it is done." Sasuke smirked.

Kankuro was speechless.

In the meantime, the clan heads were talking amongst themselves.

"That was nifty of him." Inoichi said.

"It was when he said 'Activate', wasn't it?" Chouja asked.

"Yes, he made the seals of a genjutsu and said the name of it slowly followed up by that stunt. When he shouted 'Activate' he used it as a distraction so the Suna kid doesn't hear what he really said before." Shikaku added.

"The Suna brat got scared of the Kunai when the only thing it had was his own blood." Tsume laughed.

"Would you blame him, sometimes the effect of a genjutsu is similar to poisoning." Shikamaru replied.

"These matches are truly unpredictable." Hiashi said at which everyone just gawked at him, even the Hokage.

With Sasuke,

Sasuke was welcomed by a combined tackle-hug from Ino and Sakura but he dodged them easily.

"Glad that you didn't fall for that taunt, guess you are improving." Haku chuckled.

"I will take that as a 'congratulation'." Sasuke smirked at her.

"Guys, the next match is going to start." Naruto urged them.

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**Naruto Uzumaki vs Kiba Inuzuka**

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"Awesome, we are going to get an easy win. Let's go Akamaru." Kiba shouted but before leaping down he looked at Hinata, "Cheer for me, ok?"

Hinata smiled at him but she looked at Naruto who met her eyes, and then she gave him an encouraging smile but blushed when Naruto winked at her. He then went toward the arena.

"Naruto might get thrashed." Ino sighed but looked at Naruto and when their eyes met she gave him a thumbs up which confused Naruto but he returned the gesture.

"I wouldn't be so sure." Shikamaru gave his thought.

"Why?" Ino looked at him.

"Let's call it a hunch." Shikamaru finished the conversation although Ino wanted to know more she decided it was better to know by watching.

Naruto came to the arena but before Hayate could begin the match,

"I don't know what someone like Hinata sees in a clan less street urchin like you but now I am going to show her who she should choose." Kiba grinned but it lessened when he felt the temperature dropping few degrees.

Naruto's eyes narrowed dangerously and instead of azure blue, his eyes had ice blue shade. Lighting started coming out from his body and surrounded him like an armor although it was not that much, it still showed how much _pissed_ Naruto was.

Hayate coughed to draw the attention.

"Let the third match begin."

Kiba straightened himself and smirked at Naruto.

"Akamaru you sit down on this one, I can take care of this." Kiba took out a pill, "Just because he got a bloodline doesn't mean he _mastered _it so quickly." Kiba ate the pill and suddenly his features became more animalistic.

"If the master doesn't want to fight, I don't see why I should either." Naruto pumped up his chakra and made his signature seal.

"Shadow Clone: Capture formation."

Five Shadow clones came out, three were in front and two where in back. After Naruto made his clones he started to walk back.

"Hiding behind stupid clones isn't going to help." Kiba charged but his mistake caused Naruto to take the first blood.

One of the clone came right at him but Kiba, thinking that it was a normal clone, wanted to go through him but was met with a hard elbow which threw him off but he spun and landed properly.

Kiba looked critically at each clones this time and understood that they were _not _regular clones but was surprised when all three clones surrounded him.

"Beat my _stupid_ clones first, mutt. Then we will see what we can do." Real Naruto smirked as he stood at the end of the arena platform.

Kiba was livid, he knew no matter what his increased agility and strength could give him an easy win against the clones no matter how special they were.

But he was proven wrong once again. As minutes passed by, he was still unable to take down Naruto's clone.

"Ingenious." Gai surprised voice grabbed everyone's attention.

"I am guessing you know why our young Inuzuka is having problem?" Asuma inquired.

"It's a simple yet youthful tactic. Usually shadow clones can be destroyed by one strong attack but those are not normal shadow clones. They are stronger and takes more chakra to create and because of that they can withstand more attacks." Gai explained.

"That doesn't explain why Kiba is having trouble?" Ino asked.

"It's because the way they are fighting. Each shadow clones are perfectly collaborating with each other and not only that, each of the shadow clone is using different styles of taijutsu which is hard to counter. This is the first time I am seeing something like this." Kakashi explained and the jonins were surprised to see Kakashi still not reading his book rather he was watching the fight with interest.

"Correct my eternal rival. But there was another person who used to fight like this," Hearing this everyone looked at him for answer, "It was the Second Hokage."

Back at the arena, Kiba was having hard time. He almost got the clones few times but other clones would support the damaged clone by giving it enough time to be replaced by one of the two backup clones.

It was not going to end.

Kiba knew it was going to take a huge blow on his pride but he couldn't afford to lose the match.

"Akamaru," Kiba suddenly threw a pill at the puppy. And when Akamaru ate it,

"Beast Human Clone." When Kiba said that Akamaru transformed into a perfect Kiba clone.

"Use 'Passing fang'." Hearing that Akamaru used one of the signature jutsu and took out one unwary shadow clone which gave the edge Kiba was looking for.

"Fang Passing Fang." Kiba and Akamaru spun at a ferocious speed and delivered many powerful beast-like attacks to the rest of the clones effectively destroying all of them.

"Guess the master finally joins the battle." Real Naruto said as he readied his stance. This match would have been a real easy one but he promised to Yamato that he wouldn't use Kiba swords against any Konoha shinobi unless it was an emergency. So he couldn't use his strongest specialty, Kenjutsu.

"Time to use _that_." Naruto whispered to himself.

"You are going to regret that, dead-last!" Kiba raged as he spun and made another 'Fang passing fang' with Akamaru but instead of going straight toward Naruto the jutsu went upward and dashed down at Naruto, also this time both tornado like attacks were spinning around each other resulted in a combined vicious drill-like technique.

"Super Fang Passing Fang."

The moment Kiba started his jutsu, Naruto started to prepare his. His lighting chakra spiked causing lighting to come out of his body but then he focused so the lightning chakra gathered around his left arm only, he pumped more chakra in his arm, from elbow down, creating more powerful lighting. After that he spew water over his arm which merged with lightning, and created a chakra like arm. It was so thick that his real arm couldn't be seen, and also at the same time sparks and lightning were coming out here and there and it was making thunder-like grumbling noise.

"Storm Release: Divine fist."

When the two jutsu collided, the match ended instantly. Kiba's technique was so overpowered that when Naruto's fist hit his, he was thrown out of his jutsu and he along with Akamaru were send straight to the other end of the arena.

They were out cold before they even hit the ground.

Everyone's eyes were as big as dinner plate, except for Yamato who was grinning like a madman.

All of the older Shinobis wanted to see if Naruto could use any Storm release jutsu but they didn't expect something of this caliber.

"That was a seal-less jutsu, wasn't it?" Tsume said in stunned voice.

"Troublesome, not only that it has enough potential to match even Rasengan or Chidori." Shikaku added.

All the other clan heads were looking at Naruto speechlessly but only Hiashi had an amused expression but it was hardly noticeable.

Light smokes were coming out of Naruto's left arm and it was shaking as well.

"Damn, still too strong." Naruto grumbled.

"Winner, Naruto Uzumaki." Hayate declared when he recovered from this stunning event.

All the jonins wanted some explanation but when they looked at Yamato, he had two fingers up and had an amused expression.

"I know what you want to ask me; yes, I know about this jutsu but it is not my place to tell anything about it." Yamato said.

When Naruto came to the waiting area, Kakashi jumped first,

"So, Naruto. Care to explain what kind of jutsu was that?" Kakashi asked giving his signature smile.

"Bloodline secret." Naruto answered flatly.

Before anyone could ask anything, Hinata came and started to check Naruto's wounded arm making him smile. Naruto looked at where the clan heads were and his eyes met Hiashi's. Naruto grinned while maintaining eye contact at which Hiashi's one eyebrow went up a bit, seeing that Naruto's grin widened.

"_Don't think you are getting my daughter that easily, brat."_

"_Try and stop me, old fart."_

Hinata finished treating Naruto's wound, ignorant to the silent event that just occurred between her boyfriend and her father.

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**Temari vs Tenten **

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The match was pretty one-sided, Temari became victorious while she remained untouched.

"That was brutal." Naruto commented.

"She is strong." Haku added but her voice had a challenging tone to it, Sasuke looked at Haku amusingly when he heard that.

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**Ino Yamanaka vs Haku**

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Haku didn't wait as she went toward the arena while Ino shouted as how she was going to win this fight easily.

When both came at the arena,

"Ready, begin."

Ino jumped back and took out kunai at each hand.

"I don't know where you came from but don't think that Sasuke-kun will like you just because you _look_ tough." Ino grumbled as she didn't miss the interactions between them. But she was also hoping that Haku would start arguing about it so she could use her signature jutsu while Haku was distracted.

"Really? Then why did he molest me when I was sleeping?" Haku asked in a flat tone.

Silence.

"What the hell?!" Ino screamed. She looked at Sasuke who was looking anywhere but at the arena. Although his clearly visible red cheeks answered everything.

Most people didn't know what to say, except Kakashi,

"She _does_ have a nice figure." He said in an understanding tone.

"I was framed but she just won't let it go." Sasuke groaned.

"Checkmate." Shikamaru sighed, Asuma nodded understandingly.

"Forehead, why didn't you….." Ino couldn't finish.

"Ninja Art: Hidden Mist Jutsu." Haku used her jutsu.

The area was filled with thick mist but it only surrounded the arena ground.

"What the heck is this?" Ino said in a shocked voice.

"And your daughter just revealed her position." Shikaku laughed softly at which Inoichi facepalmed.

There were few small yelps and after a while the mist cleared to show a fainted Ino with multiple needles sticking throughout her body.

"Winner, Haku." Hayate declared.

Haku smiled softly and went back to the waiting area where she was received with applauds from her team and friends.

"That's my team. Guess _all_ of you are advancing to the finals." Yamato grinned as he declared a bit loudly. Others jonin looked away, embarrassed.

"After this is over, we go to celebrate the team's _magnificent _victories. You guys _earned_ it." Yamato's grin widened.

"Cool, thanks sensei." Naruto cheered while Haku grinned and Ranmaru smiled in appreciation.

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**Hinata Hyuuga vs Sakura Haruno**

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"Good luck Sakura." Kakashi said, Sasuke nodded as well.

Sakura smiled and slowly headed toward the arena.

Hinata also received supports from her team and friends, Naruto gave her a thumbs up and a wink which made Hinata to blush.

When both reached the arena, Hayate studied them,

"Let the match begin."

Before they could take stances,

"Give up on the dense knucklehead Hinata. He will not see you the way you want, he is too obsessed over me." Sakura smirked, Hinata stiffened for a bit, _"Got you."_

"Genjutsu: Cherry blossom vision."

Hinata went still, taking the advantage Sakura charged at Hinata to end the fight quickly but the moment she was close,

"Palm Heel Strike."

Hinata struck Sakura at her chest, effectively paralyzing her as the attack took her by surprise.

"It was a clever technique Sakura-san, you followed Ranmaru-kun's idea. While coming down you completed half of the jutsu and on the arena you distracted me to pull off the rest of your technique." Hinata said as she took a Kunai and held it on Sakura's throat.

Hayate got the message,

"Winner, Hinata Hyuuga."

"Then why didn't it work?" Sakura grumbled as she was still in denial.

Hinata smiled softly at her but didn't answer. She headed back to the waiting area where her team and friends cheered for her and if it wasn't for Yamato restricting Naruto she might have gotten a bear hug from him.

"Next match is going to begin." Kakashi motioned everyone to pay attention.

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**Shikamaru Nara vs Sai**

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"Troublesome." Shikamaru grunted but the next moment surprised him and everyone else.

"I quit." Sai raised his hand and seeing everyone's confusion face he added, "My main skills require special substances which I don't have enough now to win a full out match."

Hayate observed Sai for some time,

"Winner by forfeit, Shikamaru Nara."

"Praise the Lord!" Shikamaru beamed at which everyone laughed. Sasuke looked at Sai for some time then just shook his head.

"Wow, the lazy ass got the easiest win." Naruto whined a bit, Ranmaru nodded with him. Haku just smiled at them and laughed softly with Hinata.

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**Gaara vs Lee**

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It was the most intense and brutal match. Lee lost but he dominated the match at latter round, and when Gaara won, if Gai didn't intervened, they would have seen a brutal finishing. Naruto was actually pissed the way Gaara wanted his match to win but for some reason he could relate his hate, he just shook the thought away.

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**Yugito Nii vs Shino Aburame**

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The blond girl smirked as she jumped and landed on the arena floor.

Shino followed soon after.

Hayate confirmed whether they were ready, then,

"Let the match begin."

Both Shino and Yugito jumped back to gain some distance.

Shino started to gather insects to go for the offensive.

Yugito gathered her chakra as well.

"Secret Technique: Insect Sphere." Bugs started to come out from his hand and started to box in Yugito who was rather calm which made Shino to frown.

"Fire style: Blazing vortex." With that Yugito started to spin creating a flaming sphere which destroyed most of the bugs in an instant. After she finished her attack, she grinned at Shino,

"Bad luck, bug-boy. My primary affinity is fire and I am quite good with it. So, if bugs are all you have, I suggest you to back down." Yugito proposed mockingly.

Shino scowled but he weighted the options he had, the jutsu Yugito used was strong but everyone could see it needed a lot of chakra meaning she wouldn't be able to spam it although she was good with fire element which was easy to notice. Shino could go all in to catch her off-guard but that would mean he had to sacrifice lots of his bugs.

"Logically speaking, you shouldn't be able to use that jutsu unless you are a chakra monster," Yugito had enough training to stop her from flinching, "You will run out of chakra if you think you can burn your way through my bugs," The moment he said that, more bugs started to come out from his body and it was twice as many.

Now it was Yugito's turn to frown, Shino was right. Without the help of her tenant, she wouldn't have enough if he went all out. And because the Hokage was present, there was no way she could get away with using her specialty.

"Why not we see bug-boy? Will your bugs fall first or my chakra runs out first?" Yugito challenged but she didn't have the spark like before and Shino caught it.

They both stared at each other and the crown was watching with anticipation at what was going to happen next.

"Logically, if _fire_ attacks all you _have_, then it is my win but the victory will come with greater sacrifice which is quite unreasonable for me." Shino took a deep breath.

"Proctor, I forfeit." Shino finished.

Yugito narrowed her eyes, it was her win but it felt like Shino just gave it to her.

"That was quite tactical of your son, too bad he couldn't win." Shikaku said.

"It just means he has to train harder." Shibi said calmly.

"Guess only Young Hinata and Shikamaru are going to the final." Tsume said.

Hiashi just nodded but there was a ghost of a smile in his face which didn't go unnoticed by other clan heads.

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**Neji Hyuuga vs D**

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"This will be the last battle and because of that C from Kumo team gets free pass to the final." Hayate declared.

C smirked slightly but it was nothing compare to his other teammate.

"Guess you got what you wanted." Yugito commented, they were standing bit far away from the rest like the Suna team.

"Sure looks like it." D laughed.

A bit later, both D and Neji came down to the arena.

"This is the last fight." Hayate commented, "Let' begin."

Neji jumped back and activated his Byakugan.

"It seems fate is smiling at me for letting me fight against a Kumo scum." Neji sneered.

D openly gawked at him and then he started laughing hysterically.

"Really?" D's laughter lessened, "Fate? Is that the best excuse you can come with? So what do you say when you lose a fight? Fate was taking a nap?" D asked between his laughter, hearing that even Naruto snickered but stopped immediately when Hinata looked at him.

Neji was livid, he charged to attack but to his surprise D jumped back, quite fast and went through several hand seals.

"Lightning release: Lightning dragon's hide."

Strong lightning started to come out from his body exactly like Naruto but it was more intense and more controlled.

Neji's rage was turned into confusion and then in understanding. Even Hiashi who was looking at the battle understood the meaning behind that jutsu.

"I guess you understood what this jutsu is for. Let me tell you something, Hyuuga. _Fate_ did smile but not at you rather at me for putting me against you." D told, gone with the cheerfulness and was replaced with deadly aura.

Neji looked at him critically and then they went all out against each other.

The fight was too fast for the other genins except for a few.

"Incredible." Gai remarked.

"I thought it was unwise to use taijutsu against Hyuuga." Haku asked.

"Normally yes but this kid is using lighting chakra as an outer shield which is working marvelously against gentle fist." Kakashi commented.

"No, it is more than that." Gai added at which everyone looked at him but he didn't say anymore.

Neji was having a hard time against his opponent, He figured out what was the problem but what he needed now was a solution. Because of D's lightning chakra, Neji couldn't inject his chakra into his opponent's chakra pathway system. D suddenly leaped back.

"Let me show you how your Gentle fist is nothing compare to my Dragon fist." D smirked.

Neji scowled but he kept his anger to himself, he took a breath and started to think about his options. He had few jutsu under his belt which he wanted to save for the final but guess he had to bring them out right now. Neji started to concentrate more chakra to his fingers, determined to penetrate D's defense.

Understanding Neji's gesture, D scoffed and motioned him 'Bring it on."

Neji smirked and said,

"You are now in my field of divination." Neji said as his pushed more chakra into his fingers but rather than getting intimidated, D widened his stance but put both of his arms in front with closed fist.

"Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms." Neji yelled out as he spun on glowing yin and yang with D at the edge, his fingers was covered with so much chakra that it looked like chakra needles.

"Lighting Dragon's heavenly protection." D said as all most of the lightning chakra gathered around his arms and legs, not only that but more lighting emerged from his body and surrounded him like a protective sphere. But the most surprising act was him closing his eyes.

As the deadly fingers closed in D's arms moved accordingly as if he was seeing all of Neji's strikes. Each deadly sharp strikes was blocked, but Neji was not called genius for nothing. He understood that D was using his arms as a wall to protect his body and seeing that Neji changed the direction of his strikes and started to hit D on his arms. D smirked as if he also figured out what Neji was up to, so he pushed more chakra towards his arms.

For taijutsu enthusiasts, it was a magnificent battle to behold. Precise offense versus flexible defense.

When the attacks were finished, both competitors leaped back to gain some breathing room.

D looked at his arms, they were swollen.

"It's over, Kumo scum. You can't use those arms of yours any time soon." Neji smirked.

"I am disappointed." D sighed and hearing his voice Neji scoffed, "How ironic that even with the _mighty_ Byakugan, you are still blind." D raised his arms, "What you did was to block the chakra path on my arms but that's it. Real taijutsu doesn't rely _only_ on bloodline or chakra. It's vast and ever so expanding. But someone like you won't understand." D spat, "So let's finish this."

Neji was furious, but D wasn't the only one who was injured. Neji's index finger and middle finger on both hand was injured badly. But that didn't matter.

With raised palm, Neji went in for the finish, with his Byakugan he could see that there was no chakra in D's arms meaning he was vulnerable no matter what he said.

D shook his head, he loosened his stance once more, putting one leg a bit behind than the other. The moment Neji was close, he saw it clearly. D's chakra spiked a bit but it went toward his leg fast.

D put all of his weight on his front leg and he gave a roundhouse kick, aimed at the side of Neji's head, but the kick was far worse than a normal one as it was enhanced with lighting chakra, meaning more speed and more power.

"Lightning dragon's tail swipe."

Knowing that the kick had further reach and because Neji couldn't redirect his course he put his arm up to protect his head but it was all for naught.

The moment his kick landed, Neji's arm broke like a twig and even with the damaged arm up, Neji felt a vibration passed through his head and it was so strong that for few seconds he lost his consciousness.

Without stopping, D rotated his body to the other way and delivered another consecutive attack with the same leg, this time it was a back kick which hit dazed Neji right at the chest.

Neji flew and when he landed, rather roughly, he started to cough violently.

"Proctor, call the match." D calmly suggested.

Hayate looked at Neji who was trying to breathe properly.

"Winner…." Hayate was stopped by Neji.

"Don't think you won just like that!" Neji shouted who stopped coughing but still had difficulty even standing, "Fate has declared you to lose by my hands!"

"I don't know which is worse, 'Gentle fist' which never develops or a Hyuuga who hides behind his delusional believes." D spat.

"Let me put you out of your misery." D stood straight, he focused his chakra on his legs,

"Lighting dragon's raging dash." In an instant, D was in front of Neji and hit him with chakra enhanced shoulder bash, Neji wasn't fast enough to dodge so he got the full blow from it and flew once more and this time was smashed into the wall. He fell from the wall, unconscious.

Hayate shook his head,

"Winner, D."

Everyone released their breath, even the jonins and clan heads. One could say it was one of the most suspense match ever.

"With this the preliminary round is over, all the remaining contestants come down and pick your number. And show it to me." Hayate shouted.

Every remaining genin came out and took a paper from a box, receiving the numbers they showed it to Hayate who noted it down.

"So this is the match list of the finals."

"1st round, Haku vs Sasuke Uchiha." Hearing that Sasuke smirked at Haku who just smiled softly but didn't look back at him.

"2nd round, Shikamaru Nara vs Temari." Temari didn't say anything but everyone heard Shikamaru's groaning.

"3rd round, Hinata Hyuuga vs D." D laughed as he looked at Hinata who surprisingly met his stare head on, although not maliciously.

"4th round, Naruto Uzumaki vs Gaara." Naruto facepalmed but Gaara made no notion.

"5th round, C vs Ranmaru. And Yugito Nii will be fighting one of the winners from first round but it will be decided on that day." With that Hayate backed away as Hokage came and looked at them.

"First of all congratulations to all of you who passed these rounds, there were some quite spectacular matches I have witnessed and I hope that you can show much more on the final round which will be held after one month. Train in this one month and make your village proud." With that Hokage finished his speech at which everyone bowed and started to head their own way.

"Guess I get to beat another Hyuuga, a pretty one at that." D smirked, Hinata looked at him,

"Not every Hyuuga is like what you believe them to be D-san. You are good but you have too much pride." Hinata softly answered.

"My pride is just, I am strong and I just beat a Hyuuga in taijutsu which was _supposed_ to be an impossible feat." D snickered.

"You haven't beat all of the Hyuuga, D-san." Hinata calmly replied at which D just laughed.

"We will see about that pretty girl but don't worry I will make sure not to hit that beautiful face of yours." With that D went toward his team, laughing. Naruto came after D left, he wanted to rip D's face off but knew that Hinata wanted to say something to that guy after he beat Neji.

"You ok, Hinata?" Naruto asked softly.

"I am fine, Naruto-kun. I will meet with you later." Hinata wanted to leave but Naruto grabbed her wrist.

"Is it ok if I come with you to visit Neji?" Naruto requested which made Hinata smile.

"I will be glad if you do."

A bit far away, Haku saw Anko going to Hokage and saying something. She wanted to go to her but was stopped when she heard someone behind her,

"I didn't forget the deal Sasuke-san if that is what you wanted to ask." Haku said as she took a side glance.

"What if we raise the wager a bit?" Sasuke asked with a smile.

"And that would be?" Haku turned to look at Sasuke.

"If I win, you forgive me and answer some questions, regarding your past." Sasuke asked calmly.

"And when you lose?" Haku asked in a same calm tone.

"_If _I lose, I will do whatever you say." Sasuke answered back.

"You get to be my male servant for one day." Haku grinned, at which Sasuke lost his composure. He surely didn't expect _this._

"I always wanted a servant." Haku laughed as she started going toward Anko.

Sasuke just stared at her speechlessly.

"Being a servant for a girl like her won't be that bad." Kakashi said as he came to Sasuke who scoffed hearing that, "But I would suggest you make sure Zabuza doesn't hear you molesting his foster daughter." Hearing that Sasuke visibly shivered.

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**Somewhere Hidden**

"Can you tell me why neither the sound team nor your team was able to pass the second round, Kabuto?" Orochimaru asked calmly, which was never a good sign.

"Orochimaru-sama, for sound team I don't know what happened but I saw dead bodies of Kiri nin there as well. I am guessing _unexpected_ problems rose and they were unable to overcome them." Kabuto answered from his kneeled position.

"Useless pawns. What about you?" Orochimaru asked as he narrowed his eyes.

"I was met with a jinchuriki." Orochimaru looked confused for a bit but Kabuto continued, "It was neither from the sand nor from the Konoha. She was from Kumo." Hearing that Orochimaru stood up slowly.

"Was she strong?" Orochimaru asked evenly at which Kabuto nodded positively, "That would cause some problems." Orochimaru said as he closed his eyes as if he was thinking something.

"How so?" Kabuto asked.

"You have to understand, Kabuto, how a Kage thinks which is why I was able to manipulate Kazekage, someone like Raikage will never send one of his strongest weapon all the way out here unless he has a cause of his own. But I think I know where he is going with this." Orochimaru opened his eyes and he started to walk away.

"Will it clash with our plans?" Kabuto asked, still kneeling.

"Most likely. Tell me Kabuto, you know what previous Raikage did to get bloodlines," Seeing Kabuto nodding, he continued, "Their new Raikage is no better I am guessing. What would he do if he heard that one of his precious bloodline was found in another village?"

Kabuto looked up in surprise as if he understood what his master meant.

"And if I were him, I would try to snatch or destroy few more while at it." Orochimaru hissed.

"Should I prepare something for them as well?" Kabuto suggested.

"By all means." With that Orochimaru was gone.

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**And Cut.**

**More details about D's Dragon fist will be told on the next chapters.**

**Also upcoming chapters will be about the genins finding the right sensei for them.**


	23. Chapter 23 : Second Time

**Hello guys, here is another quick update I guess. It is the first time that I wrote a full chapter with battles, thanks for liking it. **

**This chapter is more of a buildup for upcoming chapters.**

**Silgain: Kurama is grumpier in the early part of the story so it will take a bit time for him to open up.**

**BingeReader97: Thanks a lot, really appreciated it. As for the grammar mistakes I am working on it, for the old chapters I am revising them. You can check on the description how many chapters I fixed.**

**VizeerLord: Thanks bro, it helps a lot. I will keep them in mind when I revise the chapters.**

**Vallavarayan: My latter chapters will answer your first question and my next few chapters will answer your last one.**

**Ryuujin96: All I can say that you are up for a surprise**

**Anarky'sMeanBeast, AyaValkyrie, FinalKingdomHearts, ChibakuNaruto, lilnudger82, magikiz2sick, ZyiareHellsing, bankai777, buterflypuss, Ayrmed - Thanks for reviewing and like the story**

_**Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto.**_

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Naruto and Hinata went inside Neji's room who was awake and had a blank look on his face. He shifted slightly when he felt their presence.

"Came to boast about my defeat, Hinata-_sama_." Neji gave a defeated smile.

Naruto tensed but Hinata gently touched his shoulder to remind him of their promise.

"_Let me take care of this, please."_

Hinata went closer to the bed, she had talked to the doctor beforehand and knew that even though Neji had serious injuries, he would recover soon without any major problem unlike his teammate.

"Neji-nii san." Neji looked at Hinata when he heard her gentle voice, "I always envied you as you were and still are one of the greatest prodigy of our clan. You don't want to look at it but you have the support of the branch family, even some main house members talk about you with great pride. But the disheartening part is that you chained your own talent yourself by hiding behind your deceitful ideology." Neji narrowed his eyes but didn't say anything.

"Everyone deemed me weak and delicate heiress who will not be able to do anything. I didn't have any support, not even from my own father." Both Neji and Naruto tensed at that but Hinata continued,

"Yet I kept going because I took strength and support from someone while hiding behind the shadows as I was too coward to do it directly. But just by taking small steps that someone noticed me back and to my utmost joy not only I am one of his most precious person but also he sometimes relies on my support and strength. Can you imagine? Someone who is so strong and have such an unbreakable will depends on someone weak like me? It makes you think, that no matter what as long as you belief in yourself and follow your own heart you can accomplish anything. So to make my dream come true I won't hide behind my fears or any kind of believes that would obstruct my dream, I will continue to strive forward. What about you, nii-san? Can't you see? You are not only destroying your own talent and future but also hurting yourself with your deceiving conviction. Please think about it." Hinata smiled sadly as she started to head toward the door, both Neji and Naruto were speechless.

"If you excuse me, I have to start training to defeat someone who dishonored my _family_." With that Hinata exited.

"You know, sometimes I wonder, how Hinata can remain so kind with all the abusing she gets from her own _family_. At least for me it's strangers." Naruto said but he whispered the last part.

Naruto shook his head and followed Hinata but when he went outside he saw Hiashi.

Naruto saw sadness and a bit of self-loathing inside the man's eyes, when their eyes met. He didn't wait any longer as he went after Hinata and as for Hiashi, he sighed and went inside the hospital room hoping that by taking this step he could mend some part of his broken family.

Naruto caught up with Hinata who was standing in front of a door, it seemed like somehow she missed meeting her father.

"Lee is there?" Naruto asked and Hinata just nodded.

"Is it bad?" Hinata didn't answer Naruto's question as she didn't know.

A bit later Gai came out and it was the first time that Naruto saw Gai without his cheerful attitude. Gai looked at them and smiled sadly,

"Ah, what a surprise?" Gai straightened himself, "Do you need anything from the mighty Gai?"

"How is bushy brow?" Naruto asked first. Hearing that Gai slumped back again.

"It is bad but I know that Lee is youthful enough to pull himself out of this." Even though Gai tried but he failed to sound overly-joyous like his usual self.

"We believe in him, he will get better." Hinata tried to cheer Gai which seemed to work.

What none of them noticed was that a red-haired girl hearing the conversation who backed away without them spotting her.

"I am sure he will Gai." Everyone turned to see Kurenai and Yamato was coming along with the rest of team five.

"Where are the others?" Naruto asked.

"Kakashi and Asuma took the rest of the rookies back." Kurenai replied, she looked at Hinata who was fidgeting a bit and smiled, "I know what you want to ask of Gai and that's perfectly ok with me." Hearing that Hinata smiled back and hugged her sensei.

The rest of the people were confused,

"Gai-sensei, is it ok if I ask a favor from you?" Hinata asked nervously. Gai smiled and motioned her to continue,

"Will you train me for the final?" Hinata requested as she bowed slightly. Gai was taken aback a bit, he looked at Kurenai who nodded.

"It will be my honor." Gai smiled and gave his signature smile.

"But you are not giving Hinata any of your spandex suits." Kurenai warned, Gai just laughed.

"My youthful friend, do you see _all_ of my youthful students wearing that outfit? It is just a preference of mine." Gai replied back and Kurenai blushed at hearing that.

"While we are at it, Kurenai-san would you like to train Ranmaru again?" Yamato asked politely, Ranmaru was surprised to hear that.

"Like Gai said, it will be my honor." Kurenai chuckled lightly.

"So Naruto and me are stuck with you?" Haku asked.

"For the time being before I can find any better solution." Yamato grinned.

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**With Naruto**

Naruto was going back home, after some rest he would take out Hinata to eat and have some alone time together cause he knew that on the upcoming month both of them would be really busy in their training as their opponents were no joke.

For Hinata, she had to overcome her clan's prized jutsu's weakness and somehow would have to come up with a counter plan because even he could see that the D guy was way too strong. One wrong move could change the outcome of the match.

And for Naruto, one wrong move and he would be dead. Gaara was too bloodthirsty and he kept talking about his mom as if he was possessed. He would have to go all out, he asked Yamato and he gave him the permission to use Kiba swords, heck he even said to use _anything_ and_ everything_ in his arsenal. What Gaara did to Lee was unacceptable and Naruto would make sure that Gaara would have a taste of his own medicine, well not that brutal way though.

Before Naruto could open the door to his apartment, he suddenly felt lightheaded.

"What happened?" Naruto asked as he steadied himself.

"**Looking good, kid."** The familiar voice spoke up.

Naruto almost shouted but he immediately put his hand on his mouth and looked around, he hurriedly went inside his room and ran toward his couch. He sat down and began to concentrate to dive into his mindscape.

He opened his eyes to see the divine beast lying around leisurely but with a big grin on his face.

"**Been some time, huh, kid?"** Raiju asked with a smile.

"Raiju-san, you are back!" Naruto shouted as he ran and hugged the beast but with the size he got lost in Raiju's fur. Raiju chuckled at that.

"**Nice to see you too, Naruto."** Raiju said.

Naruto came out of his fur and started to shake off the hair that was stuck throughout his body.

"Where have you been, Raiju-san? You missed _everything_." Naruto pouted.

"**So why not you enlighten me then?"** Raiju grinned.

Naruto nodded excitedly and sat down. He then started to describe everything that happened from the day Raiju left and Raiju had to admit, he did miss lots of interesting events.

"**I knew you were going to make it to the final and I am glad that you were able to pull off that technique. There is something we need to talk about and I think the timing is perfect as well." **Raiju said seriously.

"What is it?" Naruto asked a bit nervously.

"**Remember the test Lord Raijin talked about?"** Naruto gulped hearing that, **"He thinks you are ready to take it. So what do **_**you**_** think?"**

Naruto started to fidget a bit hearing that and who can blame him. He was going to meet a _god_ who would give him a _test_.

Seeing his nervousness, Raiju spoke in a soft voice, **"You are more than ready Naruto, trust me and trust yourself. Beside **_**when**_** you pass the test, you will learn about your own family and not only that I will ask Lord Raijin to let me train you for this exam of yours."**

Naruto's jaw hit the floor.

All nervousness was gone and was replaced with pure determination and excitement.

"_How could I forget? This is the only shot I have to know my family. And not only that I am going to be trained by a legendary beast, I will own everyone."_

Naruto stood up and looked straight at Raiju,

"I am ready." Hearing his answer Raiju grinned.

"**Glad to hear that kid, now listen. If I am not mistaken, you said you have one month till the Final exam. Somehow I need you to convince others that you will be gone in that period to train yourself without revealing about Lord Raijin and me. Can you do that?"** Raiju asked.

Naruto was worried, how could he ask for one month leave without exposing any of these?

Suddenly, remembering something he looked at Raiju,

"Raiju-san, is it ok if tell all about these to one person? I always wanted to." Naruto pleaded.

"**Is it that girl?"** Raiju asked and seeing Naruto nodding, he smiled.

"**Sure but **_**only her**_**, who knows, maybe she can help you with this predicament."** Raiju chuckled.

"Thanks, Raiju-san."

Naruto got out of his mind and rushed to take shower. With all the excitement, his fatigues were all gone and forgotten.

Half an hour later, with few bowls of ramen, he was fully charged. He sprinted toward Hyuuga compound, he knew that Hinata might still be exhausted but he just couldn't wait.

He reached the compound gate and asked the guards for Hinata who reluctantly went inside to call her.

Few minutes later, Hinata came out with her normal outfit except for the lavender jacket revealing her developing figure. Naruto couldn't help but to check out his girlfriend. He quickly used one hand to rub his forehead as an act to hide what his eyes were doing. For Hinata, she didn't notice her boyfriend's _odd_ behavior. She looked fresh but a bit exhaustion could be seen in her eyes.

"Is there anything wrong Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked a bit worriedly.

"Umm, is it ok if we talk somewhere else, now, please? I need to tell you something super huge important, _stuffs_?" Naruto pleaded after finally being able to take his eyes off from her _body_, Hinata's worries lessened when she saw Naruto's overexcited eyes, his cheeks were red but she thought it was because of him running all the way here. And what Naruto wanted to say must be something really important and exciting for him if he couldn't wait till their date.

"Give me a minute." Hinata replied with a smile.

She went inside and came our wearing her jacket.

"What's wrong?" Hinata was confused, Naruto was looking at her jacket as if it was some kind of abomination.

"How many of those jacket you have? I am pretty sure the one you were wearing at the exam was pretty roughed up." Naruto narrowed his eyes at the enemy that was depriving him of his girlfriend's _full_ beauty.

"Almost as many as your own jacket." Hinata giggled. Naruto hung his head in defeat.

"So what are you going to tell me, Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked.

"Ah yes, but let's go there first." Naruto pointed at the Hokage monument.

Hinata nodded, she knew that it was his favorite place.

When they reached there, they sat down. Naruto was fiddling a bit as he didn't know how to start. Hinata smiled at Naruto and squeezed his hand in reassurance.

Naruto smiled back and took a deep breath.

"Hinata, remember that night? When Mizuki-teme deceived me." Naruto said.

Hinata nodded, how she could forget as that night changed everything for her life.

"_Here goes nothing."_ Naruto thought nervously.

Then he told her the truth about the night. About Raijin and Raiju, about his bloodline, about Raijin's test and what would come after that. In a way there was not much to tell but still, it did sound absurd.

Hinata had an expressionless face but suddenly she spoke up,

"That explains how you could eat so much ramen despite your size."

Naruto blinked. He opened his mouth but nothing came out.

"I mean everyone knew your tummy is like a gigantic wormhole." Hinata giggled as she poked the stunned Naruto's stomach, "But for it to make space for two mythical creature, I think you broke the record of having the biggest stomach. Although I am not sure what to think about the thunder god's part." Hinata's giggling increased when she saw Naruto's face.

Naruto tried hard to form a sentence but his mind was blank, even Raiju and Kyuubi were blinking inside his mindscape.

"Naruto-kun." Hinata gently said as she cupped Naruto's cheek, "I do believe you if that is what you are afraid of. And I don't care if it is Raiju-san or Kyuubi-san or any other legendary beast you host, you are you. Naruto Uzumaki, the person I admire most who is also my boyfriend." Hinata blushed at the end. Both Raiju and Kyuubi raised their eyebrows when they heard the girl. For Raiju it was because the girl was far more mature than he gave her credit for and for Kyuubi, never once Hinata spoke about him with malice or hatred but rather it was with neutral respect.

Naruto finally got out of his shocked state. He lunged at Hinata who squeaked loudly but was silenced by a rather passionate kiss. It was quite a while since Hinata fainted.

Naruto 'tsk'ed when Hinata fainted, he wanted to show how much he appreciated what she said. He thought that maybe he could go another round when she would wake up.

"**Kid, hold your horses. You didn't tell her everything yet."** Raiju laughed softly.

"Fine, fine." Naruto grumbled.

A bit later, Hinata woke up who innocently looked around but the moment her eyes landed on Naruto, her face lit up like a Christmas tree.

"Sorry, Hinata-chan. I guess I got overexcited. Are you mad?" Naruto asked sheepishly.

Not trusting her voice, Hinata nodded negatively. Seeing that, Naruto released a breath of relief.

"Hinata-chan, there is something I didn't tell you yet." When Hinata looked at him, still blushing, "Remember I said that Lord Raijin wants to test me, Raiju-san told me that I am ready to take it now and I agreed." Hinata gasped softly, her embarrassment was replaced with worry.

"Will you be alright?" She asked.

"You know me, I will be fine. But I kinda need a favor on something," After saying that Naruto explained Raiju's idea.

"It will be hard to convince people and it doesn't help the fact that you have few special circumstances." Hinata pointed out. Naruto sighed as she was right.

"But I think there is a way. You could say to Yamato sensei that you want to try out a new jutsu and you will be unavailable for few weeks. As for place, maybe you could add that you will be training in Hyuuga training ground." Hinata suggested. Naruto wanted to hug Hinata but knowing that she might faint again he refrained himself.

"But what if they come and don't find me there, won't you be in trouble Hinata-chan?" Naruto suddenly got worried.

"When the time comes, leave it to me." Hinata replied back with a smile.

This time Naruto didn't stop himself as he engulfed Hinata with a bear-hug, though she blushed, she giggled back loudly at this.

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XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

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**Sometime Later**

"You sure you want to do this alone?" Yamato asked, when Naruto made his request, he wasn't surprised as Naruto had the tendency to train alone.

"I know my opponent is a hard-headed blood-thirsty jerkass. But I know I can pull it off. Although if you can manage to give me the scroll of the 'Body flicker' jutsu, it would be really great." Naruto replied.

"Fine, but don't overdo it. And I want you report back to me in every week." Yamato said.

"How about two weeks?" Naruto asked sheepishly.

"Ten days and any more than that and you will be in trouble." Yamato answered sternly.

"Thanks, Yamato-sensei."

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Next Day

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Naruto properly checked his bag to make sure he got everything. Yamato was able to give him the 'Body Flicker' jutsu.

"How will you go, wherever you are suppose to go?" Hinata asked softly. They are standing in the entrance of the Training Ground Forty Four.

"Raiju-san said that he will teleport me there but I have to go somewhere with lots of wildlife so when he teleports me, his power won't be noticed." Naruto explained. Naruto put the bag on his back and looked at Hinata,

"Don't worry, Hinata. I will be fine." Naruto said softly.

"Just come back safely, to me." With that Hinata kissed him on the cheeks.

"Can I get one on the lips? For good luck you know." Naruto requested shyly.

Hinata blushed deeply but complied with Naruto's wish.

The kiss was soft and gentle, and it lasted longer as if both were reluctant to end it.

Finally breaking away, Naruto smiled back tenderly as he stared into Hinata's soft lavender eyes.

"I will be back, I promise, Hime."

With the last good-bye, Naruto dashed inside the forest.

Hinata watched him leave and when he vanished she turned on her Byakugan and tried to watch him as long as she could. When he was finally out of her vision, she smiled softly to herself and left the place.

"**I know you are sad kid but when you come back you will a lot stronger."** Raiju tried to cheer Naruto which worked.

"So, Raiju-san. When will you teleport me?" Naruto asked.

"**I think this should be ok. Alright, I want you to close your eyes and concentrate."** Raiju replied. Naruto stopped and did what he was told.

Lightning started to gather around him and made a protective sphere surrounding him but Naruto wasn't able to feel it. Slowly the sphere started to decrease in size and suddenly in a flash, everything was gone.

The only thing left behind was a scorched ground.

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XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

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**With Haku**

"Are you sure about that Haku?" Ibiki asked, they were in one of the confinement rooms for privacy.

"Yes, the sound genins called the guy that attacked Sasuke's team Orochimaru." Haku said.

"Well the snake-bastard used to wear that kind of outfit and from the sounds of it, I am pretty sure he wanted to mark the Uchiha brat." Anko grumbled, but then smirked, "Still I wanted to see his face when he bit your ice clone."

"So, what now, Hokage-sama?" Ibiki asked the last person in the room.

Hiruzen just sighed, things just got more complicated but at least Jiraiya would be here on the next day. There was this unknown anbu group that attacked team five, although he had a hunch about it he had no evidence to follow up. Also about Orochimaru, the Third knew whatever he was up to it was no good and it seemed like sound was affiliated with him.

"There is one more thing." Haku gained everyone's attention.

"There is this one guy, Kabuto was his name I think. He is too suspicious. I know for a fact that a mere genin isn't suppose to have information about missions of A rank and yet he knew about them as well as almost everyone's personal data. Also the Kumo team was strong and I heard them saying that they met this guy and even though they were able to handle his teammates, he was strong enough to get away from them easily. One even commented that he was almost jonin level." Haku revealed her thoughts.

Ibiki narrowed his eyes, it sounded like what a spy would do.

"This is quite troubling." Hiruzen thought for a while, "Everyone, whatever was discussed here today will stay here. Ibiki, I want you to personally check on these events. Jiraiya will reach here tomorrow and I think he can help you with this. These are quite sensitive matters so I want you two to stay out of it _for now_." Hiruzen held out his arm when he saw Anko was going to protest, "If we dig out any more information we will ask for your help, till then stay put. And Haku, I sincerely thank you for this, but right now you have a final to concentrate on."

Haku bowed in appreciation.

"Kid, for what you did, feel free to come here if you need any high level equipment, just ask me. Although there would be some restriction but I am pretty sure you can find lots of fascinating things to your liking." Ibiki smiled a bit.

Haku grinned at that.

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With Lee

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It was nighttime so it wasn't hard for her to infiltrate Lee's room.

She looked at the boy and chuckled gently.

She bit her own hand to draw enough blood and took some of it in her mouth.

She leaned down and kissed Lee and made him drink the liquid. Lee groaned lightly at that.

She stood straight and exited the room.

"Guess I will hang around in Konoha for a while."

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With Naruto

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Naruto opened his eyes, he was feeling lightheaded and having slight nausea. He looked around to see he was in a huge shrine-like place, the ground was made with thick dark marble while in the walls there were masks, similar to the one he had that night, which were glowing. Also there was no roof and it felt like the cloudy sky was really close. But the spookiest part to Naruto was that sometimes, few light chakra appeared and disappeared like ghosts. In the end of the room, there was a huge throne and Raijin was sitting there without his mask on, although Naruto couldn't see his full face because of the darkness he was still able to see the smirk that Raijin had.

Raiju was next to him but he had an encouraging smile.

"**Welcome to my humble domain, Naruto. I am glad to see you for the Second Time." **

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**Done.**

**From next chapters, it will be the trainings and tests.**

**Till then guys.**


	24. Chapter 24 : Challenges

**Hello everyone, here is another fast update but before I begin I want to answer one review.**

**RaidenUzumaki14, thank you for liking the story and in your one review you asked most of the questions I got from other readers. So I hope by answering your review, I can clear few facts of my fanfic to all of my readers.**

**About Kurama, he will play a major part in Naruto's life but it will be on latter part of the story, not quite now. Please be patient about this.**

**About jutsu, Naruto will get rasengan and it will be one of his main attacks as I want to use it uniquely. And about his other elements usage, like I said before, I don't want Naruto to be god like so I purposely put some holes in Naruto's skill. For example he will be weak in genjutsu and his taijutsu will be average. Of course being unpredictable, he will always cover his weaknesses with his strengths. But for his water and wind element, he will get unique jutsu and skills, but not right now as I don't want to overpower him. **

**About summoning, I am sorry but he will not be summoning toad contract but there is a valid reason which will be explained later. Now, will he have any other summoning contract? That you have to find out. I want to have some unique summon but I still don't have anything solid, I am open for suggestion though. **

**And lastly, RaidenUzumaki14, you suggested that I take skills from the fillers but unfortunately I stopped following the anime for some time. But if there is any special skills in any particular filler, ova, movies. Please do tell, if it works with my story's Naruto, I will add them.**

**And about Ranmaru, his past and story will come later which will also explain more about his bloodline.**

**Hope these helps with most of the questions of all the readers.**

**Also; Nirvana48, zigmas, Engineer of Epicness, guest, VizeerLord, Icesetokill, FinalKingdomHearts, Nightwing 509, thor94, Rose Tiger, BingeReader97, ZyiareHellsing, raynisia, ThatCrazyBrit94, Ryuujin96, buterflypuss, , thank you for reviewing and liking the story so far.**

**Now onto the story.**

_**Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto.**_

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"So, what is your plan, Sasuke?" Kakashi asked.

After the preliminary, Kakashi was surprised when Sasuke came to him to ask him for training. Kakashi wanted to train him for the finals but he didn't expect that Sasuke would come himself first. After giving Sakura and Sai some training schedule, he took Sasuke to an Anbu training ground.

"Honestly, Kakashi-sensei, I don't know. Haku is good, too good. She has more experience than me and not to mention she got the elemental advantage. But despite that, I want to win. I want to surpass her." Sasuke answered with pure determination.

Kakashi smiled, that was the kind of answer he wanted.

"Very good Sasuke. There is nothing wrong to admit that you are not strong enough rather it helps you to motivate to become stronger. Now if you want to defeat Haku, you have to become stronger than her and there are two ways to do it." Kakashi said.

"Two ways?" Sasuke said in confusion.

"Yes, first is to broaden the area you are already good at. Improve and polish those skills. It is more like strengthening your base, for example working on your dojutsu. So, even if she has an idea of what you are capable of doing, you can still surprise her with the same techniques if you have more precision, power or control. Also I think your battle with Haku will be more like who can outwit another rather than who can overpower the other one." Kakashi explained.

"I can relate to that. She tends to make her opponent use more power than her and also she fights with speed and accuracy and tactically." Sasuke added.

"There you go, you also know about her fighting style and strategies. Now we are getting somewhere." Kakashi said with his signature smile.

"Ok, but what about the other way to become strong?" Sasuke asked.

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With Haku and Yamato

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"The other way to defeat your opponent is to work against his weakness. It focuses more on counter based strategies and skills rather than self-development." Yamato explained.

"Well, the problem is I already defeated him twice so he will be ready and more unpredictable." Haku sighed. She was grateful toward Naruto, because he left to train alone now Yamato would solely focus on her. They were at their usual training ground.

"Yes but even so you already broke down his power and tactics. Now it is up to you, which way you want me to train you?" Yamato asked.

Haku thought for a while, Sasuke was desperate to win and she would definitely admit that he was quite smart and talented and losing two times, in a way, had given him more motivation than necessary. Haku knew Sasuke would be coming at her with everything he got and more, much, much more. If she wanted to remain undefeated, she had to try out something _extra-ordinary_.

"I understand but can I try something out." Haku then told Yamato about her plan.

Yamato laughed, he felt proud something which was unfamiliar to him. He looked gently at Haku,

"_Kakashi-sempai will have a vague idea about how I will train Haku but same can be said about me. This match is more like which student and teacher can outwit the other and I can guarantee that we just scored the first point." _Yamato thought with amusement.

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XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

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**With Hinata**

"Didn't I say Gai-sensei that let's believe in Lee-san and he will be fine?" Hinata said.

Gai just cried louder. When he went to the hospital he was scared when he saw doctors and nurses going in and out of Lee's room. Later the main doctor told him that Lee was fully out of danger which was nothing but a miracle although he still needed to go through the surgery but it was not life-threatening anymore. In a month or so, Lee would fully recover.

"You are right, my youthful student is going to be better soon. Now we have to put our heart and soul on to your youthful training." Gai replied. With a small smile, he took a deep breath. Composing himself, he looked at Hinata, he became full serious.

"Now as for your training Hinata-san, let's discuss the match between D and Neji first, shall we? Although I hate to admit, this D was more youthful and spirited than Neji. Did you learned anything from the youthful fight?" Gai asked.

Hinata was taken aback a bit by the sudden mood change but she complied to Gai's request as she recalled the match.

"All I could say is that, he knew how gentle fist works. And somehow his style was countering the gentle fist as if his style was made for that." Hinata answered.

"Very good, Hinata-san. Gentle fist is strong, maybe one of the best taijutsu styles out there but it is not the strongest. Can I trust you with one sensitive information? It is regarding your clan and fighting style though." Gai asked politely at which Hinata nodded.

"When your uncle was alive, he was one of the best taijutsu users in our village. Even amongst Hyuuga the only person who could have gone against him was your father." Hinata blinked, she never knew her uncle was that strong.

"But as a taijutsu specialist, I wanted to see who was stronger so I challenged him, there was no holding back. I fought your uncle with everything I have." Gai paused, "And I beat him using strong fist."

Hinata gasped, in just less than few days she found out two fighting styles stronger than her clan's.

"Your father requested that I do not spread this unnecessarily as it might have caused some uproar in your clan and I agreed as I didn't challenge your uncle for fame but rather for achievement." Gai smiled when he looked at Hinata who was deep in her thought.

"Now, Hinata-san. You have to understand, gentle fist is not weak but rather the way it is used. If a taijutsu master can witness any style one time then he or she can already find few holes in that style and if he or she observes several times than they can come up with counter-techniques. No taijutsu style is perfect but you can always improve or evolve your style. That is what I do with my strong fist as even now I am trying to find ways to improve it." Gai said.

"I heard from your sensei that you are working on your own version of gentle fist, is that correct?" Gai added and Hinata nodded hearing that.

"Is it possible for you to show me how much progress have you made with your style?" Gai requested.

"Alright Gai-sensei but it is not complete yet." Hinata replied.

"Not to worry my youthful student. Spar with me and then we can see how youthful your style is." Gai said in an encouraging voice.

Hearing that Hinata steadied herself and took her stance.

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XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

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**With Naruto**

Being a god, Raijin lived long enough to interact with various kinds of people, most of them wanted to use his powers, no matter what kind of people they were, good or bad, all of them were frightened when they stood before him. But this was the first time he had seen something like this, Naruto was panicking but not because him. His chamber held too much energy so from time to time it would release a bit of those energy in form of huge transparent particles, and whenever any particle would emerge Naruto would look at it sharply with wide eyes and he would become so tensed that if those particles would make any kind of noise he would scream and ran away from there.

Raijin looked to his side to see Raiju was having an embarrassed face.

"**Guess our little friend has problems with my room."** Raijin said but only Raiju heard it.

"**He is not good with supernatural beings."** Raiju answered at which Raijin made a face 'What are we then'.

"**Let us change the place then, shall we?"** Raijin said louder so Naruto would hear that and immediately he snapped his fingers and the place transformed to that of Naruto's mindscape.

"Wow, so cool! How did you do that?" Naruto exclaimed as all his previous fear was all but gone.

"**Like I said, this is my personal domain so I can change it any way I wish. Now, Naruto, I have seen that you have grown a lot strong. Stronger than I anticipated. You even renamed your power."** Raijin said chuckling.

"Ya, sounds great, right? Maelstrom release. Do you like it?" Naruto said in a bright tone.

"**Yes it does. But now it brings us to this second meeting. You remember what I said back there? And I also think Raiju explained what I will give you if you pass?"** Raiju asked.

"Yes and I am ready. I will pass this test of yours." Naruto replied in a determined voice.

"**Glad to hear that. Let's not waste time shall we, the sooner it is over, the sooner we can see what we can do. Raiju will take you to the place. I wish you all the best, Naruto."** With that Raijin disappeared with white flash.

Before Naruto could utter a word, Raiju appeared beside him.

"**Follow me."** The moment Raiju said that, the area changed and now they were in a large hallway.

Naruto quietly followed the mythical creature.

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XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

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**Somewhere in Konoha**

"So I hope this helps." Baki said.

"It sure will, I will relay the message to Orochimaru-sama." Kabuto replied.

Baki nodded and then left the place, Kabuto wanted to leave as well but he stopped and looked back. He concentrated to see if there was anyone but nothing seemed to be out of place.

Kabuto just shook his head and left the area as well.

The moment he left, a small grasshopper disappeared with smoke.

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With Naruto

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"What the hell is this?" Naruto asked in awe.

He was in a huge open platform and in the middle of it there was a tower that was so high that the end of it couldn't be seen as it reached a sky, although the stormy sky seemed to be very close to the platform.

"**Naruto, this is the lightning tower. Your test is simple Naruto, reach the top of the tower but someone will be accompanying you and both of you have to finish this together. There are different kinds of **_**creatures **_**inside but I am sure both of you will be able to handle it."** Raiju explained.

"So who is coming with me?" Naruto inquired.

Raiju looked to his side, following his gaze Naruto saw the person.

It was a boy similar to his age who had spiky silver hair, very light skin and blue eyes. He was wearing baggy clothing, consisting of long-sleeved and dark-colored shirts and baggy shorts which reached above his knees. His boots were brown and black in color.

"**Naruto, this is Killua who will be joining you with this test. He has already been informed about this beforehand."** Raiju said. Naruto just smiled and went in front of the boy,

"Nice to meet ya!" Naruto said in a cheerful tone while extending his hand.

The boy just went past him without even looking at Naruto,

"Just don't slow me down, _mortal_." Killua replied.

Raiju sighed when he saw the interaction, he knew something like this was going to happen.

"Raiju-san, you know accidents happen everywhere and if something…" Naruto couldn't finish,

"**No Naruto, you cannot kill, maim or injure him and don't even think about using him as human shield."** Raiju interrupted him.

"Fine, fine. I will carry his snotty ass all the way to the top." Naruto grumbled.

"**Bear with it Naruto. He is also doing this to prove something."** Raiju added gently.

Naruto just nodded and went toward the tower entrance.

"**Naruto."** Raiju called and when Naruto looked back.

"**Believe in yourself."** Raiju said encouragingly.

Naruto smiled back.

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Thirty Minutes Later

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Naruto was fuming, after entering the maze-like tower, both him and Killua encountered various kinds of monsters like giant bugs, beasts and strong wooden dolls. The problem was not with the enemies but rather with Killua. He was strong, Naruto would admit that as Killua was taking out any enemies that were coming at them with extreme speed and top-notch precision.

Naruto was looking at the huge dead bear, Killua just killed it by snapping it's head like it was nothing.

"You know, we are supposed to work together." Naruto finally relayed his thought.

"We are supposed to be at the end of the line together. No one said to work together, so just sit back and don't bother." Killua replied coolly.

"Why the fuck are you treating me like a weakling when you know _nothing_ about me." Naruto barked back.

Killua stopped and looked back at Naruto who felt chill going down through his spine. But he didn't falter as he met his stare with equal fierceness.

"Because all you _mortals_ are weak and useless, they cling to gods for their own selfish purposes, using the blessing of the divine gods for pure chaos and destruction." Killua said in an icy tone.

There was a pause,

"Sorry pal, I lost you at the mortal part. What does it mean again?" Naruto asked sheepishly.

Killua just blinked rapidly.

"Mortal is a term to refer humans, like you people." Killua sighed and continued before Naruto could say anything,

"And no I am not mortal as I am one of the offspring of Raijin and for some unforeseeable circumstances I didn't inherit full godhood, a mistake that I am here to fix." Killua finished.

"Ah huh." Naruto replied with fake understanding tone but Killua noticed it.

"It means dumbass that Raijin is my father and I am a half-god." Killua grunted.

"Ah, ok. Why didn't you say so from the beginning?" Naruto huffed.

"Now you know, so what are you going to do? Beg for forgiveness or ask for favors?" Killua sneered as he resumed his walking, not wanting to hear Naruto's reply.

"Dude, you need to chill." Naruto answered in a relaxing tone.

Killua was surprised as he looked back to observe Naruto carefully,

"I don't give a two shit if you are the son of Raijin or the one who gave birth to him. To me, you are an arrogant snotty brat." Naruto added coolly.

"And here you are flaunting my father's blessing. Did you not call him through sneaky manner and wished for his powers?" Killua retorted.

"Let's get something straight. I called Lord Raijin to save someone precious to me and as for the blessing, while I am grateful to him for granting me such powers, I never asked for it." Naruto replied with irritation.

"So will you give away your powers if my father deemed you unworthy? Or will you run away?" Killua smirked.

"I am here doing this stupid ass test rather than packing my bags at my home, ain't I? And I will do whatever it takes to prove myself worthy to Lord Raijin and it is NOT because of keeping the powers as something much more is on the line." Naruto answered back with a grin.

It happened in an instant.

One moment Naruto was standing and next, he flew and crashed into a wall and on Naruto's place Killua was standing.

"You are not worthy." Killua said in an icy tone.

"So this how it is going to be, huh." Naruto got up and cracked his knuckles.

"This works better." Naruto added and Killua just glared hearing that.

Both of them were enveloped by lightning chakra, Naruto took out his Kiba blades and for Killua, his fingernails changed into claws with raw lightning surrounding from his wrist up.

Both dashed at each other but to Killua's surprise, Naruto used the Kiba blades to jump over him.

"Shadow Clone jutsu: Capture formation."

When the smoke was cleared, five Naruto was in front where the one original one, as he was carrying the Kiba, was behind and two more Naruto was behind him.

Naruto wasn't stupid when it came to fighting, he knew from the earlier actions that Killua was faster and more agile than him.

"Relying on petty techniques won't work." Killua said as he snapped the head of the first clone that charged at him. Every other Naruto winced at that, dense shadow clone or not, nothing would hold long against that kind of lethal attack.

"You are really stupid, even a blind fool will know where the real one is." With that Killua charged at the Naruto holding Kiba and gave him a hard palm strike but to his surprise, one of the furthest Naruto smirked,

"Got you." With that the Naruto Killua hit, exploded in his face.

Killua was thrown into a wall but he recovered before crashing to it. He had burnt marks on his one arm and part of his face, his cloths was ragged too but surprisingly he started to heal and within few seconds his injuries healed mostly but not fully. Killua looked at Naruto and smirked.

"You gotta be shitting me." Naruto whined.

Killua's hand started to gather lightning and sensing danger Naruto grabbed his blades and started to prepare his own jutsu. The lighting that gathered around Killua's hand roughly took shape of two yo-yos.

"Twin moon storm style: Crescent moon."

"Twin Zap Cannon."

The huge lightning powered white energy wave crashed into two fast spinning lightning yo-yos.

The explosion was huge as both were equally and extremely powerful. The explosion threw both Naruto and Killua out of balance.

Naruto recovered fast as he put down some traps quickly.

When the smoke clear, Killua was seen standing, although he was a bit battered his face showed no concern. He started walking in a motion that created lots of afterimages of his body through a varying cadence of steps but the fearsome part was that there was no noise during his movement and there was hardly any distinction between the real and the afterimages.

"Get ready." Killua's voice echoed as this technique of his surrounded Naruto.

"Shadow clone jutsu: Defense formation." Naruto created lots of dense shadow clones to surround him, hoping that it might give him some time but the clones were crushed immediately with single attacks and the worst part none of them saw the attacks coming.

"Fuck! It doesn't matter if I create a normal clone or dense clone, he just pops them out like it is nothing." Naruto cursed as he immediately made his favorite hand signs again.

"Shadow clone: Breakdown formation." Few more shadow clones were created and now it was Killua's turn to make a mistake. Thinking that it was normal clones, he destroyed them but unfortunately most of them were explosive clones. The rest were dense clones that used their body to protect Naruto from the massive explosion.

Killua was thrown away from there and landed harshly but he immediately stood up. He looked at his battered body and knew that even though his healing was amazing, it wouldn't cover the damage he was receiving. The problem for him was that most of his attacks were brutal and made to kill in a single strike and he couldn't use those fully on Naruto, not that he thought he needed to go all out as he wanted to overpower Naruto. But the problem was his exploding clones as Killua was unable to see the difference between the normal and those dangerous versions and Naruto was spamming it non-stop.

Killua took a deep breath.

"Time to finish this little game of ours. But I will admit, I never thought that you would push me this far, _mortal_." Killua said in a calm voice which alerted Naruto.

"Kanmuru."

Lightning started to surround Killua's body as his hair became spikier and his eyes changed into ice-blue color. His whole body was emitting electric type aura.

Naruto took his kenjutsu stance but before he knew it, he was hit in five different spots all at once. His stance loosened as he tried to breathe but immediately felt another strike to his stomach that caused him to fly away from the place.

"He is ridiculously fast, I don't even know if the hits are punches or kicks." Naruto recovered in midair to land properly.

"Multi Shadow clone jutsu." Naruto created hundreds of clones hoping to slow Killua.

"Don't you get bored using the same trick?" Killua sighed.

"Thunderbolt." Killua shouted as he projected large bolt of lightning from his hands, striking all the clones including real Naruto with electricity destroying all clones instantly but luckily for Naruto he was able to deflect the attack cause of Kiba.

What Killua didn't know was that Naruto was using the clones as distraction so that he could use his other strong attacks which take time to use. But Naruto knew with Killua's speed it would be impossible to hit him unless it was that jutsu. He also knew that Killua wasn't the type to sit around while he focused on creating a strong jutsu. That's why he created so many of the shadow clones because when all of them were dispelled at same time the smoke created the distraction he needed. He went through hand seals fast,

"Storm Release: Laser Circus." Naruto shouted as the lightning laser beams hounded Killua who was surprised that even with his speed the laser beams were chasing him like those knew where he was and suddenly it clicked.

"_They are sensing me cause of my lightning."_ Killua thought and he also found the solution.

In a second Killua came face to face with Naruto who was standing and guiding the jutsu, and started to hit him with deadly precision. Naruto's jutsu ended immediately as he cough up blood and fell to his knees.

"_Time for the finisher."_ Killua thought as more lightning emitted from his body and took shape of yo-yos and this time there were eight of them which were floating around his body.

"Lighting Meteor." All the eight yo-yos rushed toward Naruto who in defense held out his Kiba hoping to deflect them but to his surprise and horror the spinning yo-yos came at him in zigzag style.

Even though he was able to block three, the rest of the attack hit him hard. The impact was so strong that floor beneath him cracked open and Naruto fell.

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With Naruto

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The moment Naruto fell, he saw Killua's face for a second.

He had the same cold eyes that Naruto was used to see in his village.

The eyes that denied his existence.

The eyes that told he was worthless.

The eyes that never saw him.

Naruto felt something snapped inside of him.

"Why me?"

"**Because we are cursed, you and I."**

"What did we do to deserve such fate?"

"**It is because we hold power that they fear."**

Anger.

Pure and Raw anger.

That was what Naruto felt at that moment.

"Then let me show him something **to fear**."

Inside Naruto, the tailed beast smirked.

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Somewhere Else

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Raiju tried to move but Raijin held his arm.

"**Lord Raijin?"**

"**The real test begins now; for both of them."**

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With Killua

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When Naruto fell through the hole, Killua just saw him falling down. He took a deep breath and looked around to see they caused too much damage to the floor. But before he could think about his next step, there was an immense pressure but the aura was not divine, it was the opposite.

"Impossible, how can there be such kind of power in a divine place like this?" Killua pondered but looked down to see the floor was cracking, he immediately jumped back but there was a huge explosion which caught him. He changed his direction of landing, but the moment he landed he felt something on his cheek. He touched there to see blood coming from a cut.

Killua looked at front.

When the dust cleared, Killua was surprised and a bit tense at what he saw.

Naruto was standing far from Killua but his aura, demeanor and appearance all but changed. He had dense shroud of chakra surrounding him. The shroud was a translucent red with bubbles of chakra forming all along it and not only that lightning was encircling the chakra cloak as well but instead of blue the lightning was pure red in color.

As for Naruto, his whiskers and the area around the outside of his eyes darkened. His eyes were crimson red with black vertical slits as pupils. Naruto now had the same expression that Killua had.

Cold and Uncaring.

"**Time for round two, **_**half-god**_**." **

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XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

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**In Kumo**

"You know what you are supposed to do?" A asked,

"Yes, although the reconnaissance team has sent all the information about the boy, we are to observe him ourselves." Darui replied.

"And if he truly does have the 'storm release' we will initiate the 'capture and detain' plan." The last person in the room said.

"That is your primary objective but while you are at it, if opportunity rises, try to capture 'The Last Uchiha' and 'The Princess of Konoha' as well. But concentrate on the prime target and remember," A, The Raikage, narrowed his eyes.

"Failure is not an option."

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**Finish, but I would like to clear something first.**

**I watch HunterXHunter (not all episodes though) as well, so I am, in no way, overestimating or underestimating Killua's power. I just converted his skills and abilities to match Naruto's world. And I would like to add that he is a filler character and from time to time I might add few characters from here and there if my story requires. It helps reader to imagine the characters, skills and battles. But bear in mind that they will only be filler characters.**

**Disclaimer: Do not own Killua as it is a HunterxHunter character.**


	25. Chapter 25 : Finally

**Hello guys, been some time. This a bit short chapter but if any of you missed anything do tell and I will explain in the next chapter.**

**And also I would like to add that for filler characters IF I choose people from other anime I would definitely convert their moves to match Naruto's world BUT it will not be often. **

**Also I would revise this chapter later.**

**Now onto the story,**

_**Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto.**_

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"What is wrong, Hinata-san." Gai asked when Hinata suddenly stopped in the middle of their training session.

Hinata looked at a direction where it started to get cloudy. The roaring of thunder could be heard even from where they were. Gai followed Hinata's eye,

"Guess there is a storm coming." Gai stated.

For some reason, she didn't know how, she knew something was wrong and it was about Naruto.

"_Please be safe, Naruto-kun."_ Hinata prayed worriedly.

.

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XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

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**With Naruto and Kilua**

Naruto looked at Kilua with cold and uncaring gaze,

"**Time for round two, **_**half-god**_**." **

Kilua immediately went in to finish the match as he struck Naruto at his vitals with deadly precision and speed, but before all of his strikes could be delivered he had to jump away.

Kilua looked at Naruto who smirked. Kilua's strike couldn't penetrate the chakra cloak and on top of that the chakra cloak burned Kilua's hand badly.

"To push me this far." Kilua shook his head as he took a deep breath.

"Godspeed level 2."

Immediately Kilua's body glowed brighter than before making Naruto to take a defensive stance. Kilua's appearance changed once more. The muscle in his body became more defined and one could see few vain popping here and there. His eye lost his pupil as it was now flat out silver.

"_Godspeed helps to transmit all electrical impulses from my brain in a straight line directly to the part of the body I want to use, completely bypassing the nervous system. But this upgrade helps me to increase my muscle power by using the same method to override the muscle capability. The side effect though, I would be out of battery soon."_ Kilua thought, _"So….._

"**Let's finish this mortal."** Kilua said in a deep voice.

"**Wouldn't have it any other way, **_**half-god**_**."** Naruto replied back calmly.

Both lunged at each other and when their fist connected, it created a strong sonic wave. Kilua immediately sprang into action as if he wasn't fazed at all.

Kilua was faster before but now he had the strength as well but it seemed that his strength was not enough to deal lethal damage to Naruto unless he wanted to injure himself. Because whenever Kilua hit Naruto the chakra cloak acted as a poisonous barrier causing Kilua's skin to burn. The burnt also healed slower.

For Naruto, he regained speed, strength, superior senses and his fighting style became more deadly and accurate as each of Naruto's strikes were becoming closer to hit Kilua and Kilua seemed to feel it as well.

Kilua stopped for a moment and took a sharp breath. Naruto saw the stance and knew something was coming, and something did came but he sure wasn't ready for it.

Kilua, with impressive speed and accuracy, hit Naruto on his bicep but this time he hit at the same place lots of time in short duration. Each strikes cut a bit chakra, so all the strikes together were able to remove the chakra cloak on that spot and hit Naruto's real body before the chakra cloak could replenish.

Kilua immediately moved away and smirked when he saw Naruto's left arm hung loosely. Naruto looked at his arm and then back at Kilua, he growled at him viciously.

The moment Kilua disappeared again, Naruto took a deep breath, clenched his teeth and strengthened his stance. And then he let loose a piercing howl which caused a massive sonic wave, it was so strong that it caught Kilua off-guard as he was forced to stop in the midair.

Naruto didn't even wasted one second as he punched with his other hand at Kilua's direction and immediately a chakra hand came out from his arm and within less than a second it became triple the size of Naruto's fist and hit Kilua.

Kilua was smashed into the furthest wall. He grunted but immediately dodged the second fist. Still connected to the wall, Naruto swiped his arm and his chakra arm followed his command. Kilua noticed it fast enough to jump over it. Naruto retreated his arm but immediately he rushed toward Kilua who was looking at Naruto's right arm to see if he would use that same technique and by doing so Kilua received the full force of the jaw shattering punch from Naruto's left arm.

Kilua went through the wall and the wall after that.

If his improved version of Godspeed didn't strengthened his bone and hardened his skin, he would be visiting Death God by now. He warily got up and looked at Naruto whose left hand didn't have the injury that he inflicted few moments ago.

"_Now I know how he felt when I healed."_ Kilua thought grimly.

But the part of him that wanted to beat Naruto to prove his superiority was cast aside as new part of his self took place. The part that just wanted to enjoy the battle.

Kilua pumped so much lightning chakra into his hand that his hands from elbow down was completely covered with lightning.

Kilua took a lose stance and for the first time, he smiled.

Naruto's grin widened when he got the meaning.

Both dashed to each other once again.

Naruto's punch met nothing but air as Kilua ducked to the side and jabbed at one point of the bicep of Naruto's stretched arm, the jabs were quick and lethal and strong as they were able to penetrate Naruto's defense. Naruto sneered as he made a strong swipe with other hand, Kilua once again dodged the oncoming hand and jabbed again at the other arm, same spot, same precision. Naruto felt that his both arm lost strength as they hung loosely on his side.

Kilua went close to make the same strike at Naruto's body but Naruto was not having that. Naruto moved his head back a little and head-butted Kilua fiercely. Kilua felt like he had been hit by a giant throwing rock. Kilua staggered but he was not going to let the momentum go, so he spun around to deliver a strong kick to Naruto and surprisingly, Naruto blocked his kick with his head making sure his headband take the most damage.

"**The fuck is your head made of."**

"**Same material you used to make your ego." **

Kilua grumbled as he jumped back, he started to gather lightning which took shape of eight yo-yos and they were floating around his body. Seeing that Naruto's hands, even though they didn't recover, shot out chakra arm to the ground as the chakra arm dug through it.

"**Lighting Meteor."**

The moment the yo-yos left Kilua, two huge chakra arm from each side of Naruto rose up from the ground and they covered Naruto's whole body as a protective shield.

The yo-yos hit the second chakra shield and the whole atmosphere started to shake from the power surge caused by the clash of these two monstrous attacks.

The result was Kilua's attack was able to destroy the second barrier but lost power after doing that, so Naruto was unharmed because he still had his original cloak.

Because of the dust and debris, also because he was getting exhausted, Kilua didn't notice Naruto's next attack.

After Naruto successfully blocked Kilua's attack, somehow he knew he wouldn't last any longer. Somewhere in his mind he could feel that if he use any more of this power he would lose himself, whatever was holding the defense against this corrupted power was reaching it's point. Naruto looked behind Kilua to see something and then smirked. He used all he remaining chakra at his foot and threw himself at Kilua who received the full force of the flying tackle.

Kilua felt all the air in his lungs left his body and by the time he recovered he saw Naruto was still attached to his stomach while they were in midair and going, from Kilua's perspective, backwards.

Kilua used his remaining energy to power up his one hand.

"Lightning Hammer." Kilua cursed as felt the power of version 2 Godspeed ending.

Luckily for Naruto, he still had a bit of chakra left which acted as a barrier but the attack was still strong. Naruto was smashed to the ground from the midair. But Kilua was able to land properly.

Kilua got up to see they were back at the place where the fighting started. He looked at Naruto, who was lying on the ground taking deep breaths but he was back to normal, Kilua smirked at that.

"My win, asshole."

Naruto replied him with his middle finger and a wide grin.

Before Kilua knew what was happening; lots of clones popped out as they disguised themselves as stones and structure.

Two went for Kiua's leg, he jumped but that was his mistake.

"Uzumaki style: Mirage takedown."

The next thing he knew he was heading to the ground fast but he put chakra on his hand and covered his head to block the damage but the damage didn't came from hitting the ground.

Two clone hit Kilua at the same time, one in the back and one in the chest. Kilua gasped but when he looked up one more clone came toward him,

"Wrong, it's my win, _asshole_." Then the clone exploded.

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Back at Raijin and Raiju

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"**Guess we got a winner, although both are out of battery, only one is conscious."** Raiju chuckled softly.

"**But I must say I am impressed at our little blonde's idea. He remembered that he put the clones as trap here so he dragged my boy all the way there."** Raijin added as he looked at Naruto who still hadn't moved from his spot. Naruto let his clones do all the attacks as he just laid there and enjoyed the beat down show.

"**So, should I fetch them?"** Raiju asked.

"**Yes, you…"** Raijin stopped when he saw Naruto.

Despite the injuries and exhaustion, Naruto got up slowly and walked toward unconscious Kilua, said something to him, probably cursing, then picked him up by the shoulder and started to head towards their destination, slowly.

"**The boy never ceases to amaze me."** Raijin smiled.

"_**You did it, Naruto."**_ Raiju grinned.

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XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

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**Sometimes Later**

Naruto woke up with a groan.

"What the hell happened?"

"**You fainted when you reached the top."**

Naruto looked around to see Raiju lying beside the bed he was on. Raiju was smaller in size, he was as big as a large wolf. Naruto scrunched his eyes a bit as if he was trying to remember something, then suddenly,

"Ahh, what happened to the white-haired idiot?" Naruto asked.

"_**Rather than the test, you are worrying about others."**_ Raiju thought with a smile.

"**He is fine, also Lord Raijin wants to meet you when you wake up."** Raiju replied back.

"Oh Shit! The test!" Raiju laughed when he heard that.

"Don't worry, I am pretty sure you did great." Raiju assured Naruto.

"**Let's go, you don't want to keep Lord Raijin waiting."**

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With Raijin

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"**Do you still blame them for what happened to your mother?"** Raijin spoke softly.

"They were the one who worshipped her as a divine priestess but when the time came, they betrayed her." Kilua said as he got up from his bed.

"**But you know that all of them are not same and if it was anyone's fault it was mine, for not being able to protect her."** There was remorse in mighty Raijin's voice.

"I do blame you but I blamed them more. I know I am being a Hypocrite." Kilua walked toward the door, "Guess I needed a thorough beating to understand that." He added with a chuckle.

"**He is a unique boy, I will admit that. Do you want to meet him for the last time?"** Raijin added.

"Nah, it is better this way. But I do hope that I will find a friend like him in my next life." Kilua said.

"**You will; you will, my son."** Raijin whispered.

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With Naruto

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Naruto came at Raijin's throne room, it was same as before except for the glowing particles.

"**Glad to see you doing alright, Naruto."** Raijin said, **"You seem like you want to say something." **

"Your son is an ass." Naruto said it plainly.

Raijin and Raiju just gawked at Naruto for a little bit, then both started laughing loudly.

"**That he was, he did have circumstances regarding his early life which made him this way. But thanks for straightening him up for me."** Raijin replied with a laugh.

Naruto just grumbled.

"**By the way, aren't you forgetting something?"** Raiju chuckled.

There was a pause.

"Oh yes! What about the stupid test? I passed, didn't I?" Naruto shouted.

"**Yes that you did, Naruto. You did more than my expectation. You truly are an unexpected child**." Raijin replied with a smile.

"**So I will hold my end of the bargain, Raiju will take you and he will answer your questions as I told him about everything."** Raijin added.

"**Also for your extraordinary performance I gave you few gifts, Raiju will talk to you about them later. But for now go with him to see your past, Naruto."** Raijin chuckled but before Naruto could say anything back, there was a jolt and lightning flashed before his eyes.

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Somewhere in Konoha

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Naruto opened his eyes to see he was inside a house and from the looks of it, it seemed like the house belonged to someone special.

"Is this….."

"**Yes, Naruto, this house belongs to your parents but before you go around to find the identity of your parents, know this Lord Raijin told me the circumstances regarding your past and also there were few more things he added about your parents but those will come later, I will be here waiting for you if you need me."** Raiju said but there was a bit of sadness in his voice.

Naruto didn't even listen fully as he dashed through the room, it looked like they were in the living room. He started going through all the rooms although he was unable to enter some rooms, but finally he came to one room and it looked it was master bedroom.

He slowly went inside, the room was dark but his eyes quickly adjusted. It was a normal bedroom but what caught his eyes was the huge portrait hanging near the bed. The woman, he didn't know, but she seemed to be pregnant but the man, he knew all too well.

It was the same man he admired and loved, the man who he dreamed to become. Then it hit him, **why** he was chosen to carry the burden.

The Fourth chose the village over him, over his own family.

The same Fourth who was his father.

Naruto looked to the side to see a mirror and he saw himself. He could see the resemblance now.

For a brief moment he didn't know what to feel.

Naruto was so tempted to give into the rage, it was boiling inside of him, just one nod and it would all go out. Then,

"_**Lord Raijin told me the circumstances regarding your past and also there were few more things he added about your parents."**_

Naruto rushed to Raiju, he would have been given into his rage but he had to hear the full story, he needed to know what else was there.

Raiju looked when he heard the footsteps, in a second Naruto was there in front of him, his eyes were void of emotion but he could see the rage and betrayal buried inside.

"Tell me _everything_!"

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After Sometime

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Naruto was out in the balcony, looking at the sky.

He learned what happened all those years ago. How everything was ruined and destroyed because of one person. He also learned a bit more about his mother and he could understand a little about why his father sealed Kyuubi inside him, but still he felt betrayed.

Raiju told him that The Thunder God learned all of these from Kyuubi and one more source but this was not what Naruto was conflicted about.

According to Raijin, a bit of soul of both of his parents was sealed inside him. Raijin could take out those parts and give them some extended time, it was one of Raijin's presents. So in a way, Naruto would have his parents back for one day.

If it was before Naruto would have clearly asked the Shinto God to do it right away, even now he wanted to do it but he was afraid for some reason, he didn't know why.

It was supposed to be simple but for some reason it was not.

Raiju looked at Naruto and shook his head, he knew what to do to get him out of this.

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In one of the Training Grounds

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Hinata was getting ready to leave as she was finished training with Gai who left early.

Suddenly she jumped back when she felt a presence.

There was a big wolf, Hinata never seen any creature looking so divine and majestic.

"**You are good, and you look prettier upfront."** The beast chuckled.

Hinata blinked. She opened her mouth but nothing came out.

"**Fear not girl, I am the **_**other**_** tenant leaving inside your boyfriend."** Raiju chuckled.

That snapped Hinata out of her stupor.

"Naruto-kun? Is he…."

"**He is fine."** Raiju finished for her, **"But right now he would really need your help. Would you come with me? It may take time so I suggest you better inform whoever you need to inform."**

Hinata nodded immediately.

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After Sometime

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Naruto didn't know how long he was sitting there staring up at the sky.

He didn't flinch when a hand touched his shoulder gently, he felt her presence the moment she arrived in the house.

"Did he tell you?" Naruto asked quietly.

"No, he said it was not his place to tell." Hinata replied.

"I don't know what to feel, it is so complicated that it hurts." Naruto said dejectedly.

"Then let me help you." Hinata requested.

Naruto looked at her and tugged her to sit beside him and then told her everything, the test, in short and censored version as he didn't want to worry her, and then the identity and truth about his parents.

"I want to meet them but some part of me is holding me back and I don't know why?" Naruto said after he finished describing everything to Hinata.

"I would suggest that you meet them." Hinata said making Naruto to look at her.

"Naruto, you want to meet your parents but you don't know how you are going to react. I would say, just be yourself, whether you want to hug them or punch them, just follow your heart." Hinata giggled softly.

Naruto smiled finally, he hugged Hinata gently.

"Damn, you really know what to say." Naruto whispered, "But when I am meeting them I want you to be there with me." He added.

Hinata squeaked a bit.

Meeting Naruto's parents?

"Are you sure?" Hinata asked.

"It would ease my mind and I would really love it if you do." Naruto answered honestly.

Hinata looked at Naruto and she found her answer.

She nodded.

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XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

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**Next Day**

Naruto was standing in the living room with Hinata and Raiju.

The previous day, Naruto went to meet with Raijin to tell him about his decision. Raijin did his part and gave him a medallion and told him that to use it by pressing it on top of his heart when he is ready. He was also informed that his parents would be back for around a day's worth of time.

For Hinata, she went back to compound and told her family that she would be out for the day for some personal research. She also informed Gai about the matter.

Hinata squeezed Naruto's hand, Naruto looked at her and nodded as he took the medallion and held it close to his heart.

A light engulfed the medallion as Naruto felt some kind of chakra leaving his body. The medallion started to float and went out of Naruto's hand as it hovered in front of him. The light intensified and when it died down there were two people standing in front of the group.

Naruto visibly shook when he saw the two people but calmed himself down.

"Hello, Mom, Dad."

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**Done.**

**Naruto will have one day with his parents, Hinata will be there as well.**

**Let's see what I can do on the next chapter.**


	26. Chapter 26 : Meeting the Parents

**Hello everyone, sorry for the cliff-hanger on the last chapter.**

**Also there were so many good and hilarious reviews since last chapter, but I am short on time so I sincerely apologize for not replying to them.**

**Also I will revise this chapter later for grammatical issues.**

**Without further ado, here is the next chapter.**

_**Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto.**_

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Last thing Minato remembered was saying his final words with Kushina to his son before his soul was devoured by Shinigami. He couldn't remember how much time his soul had spent inside Shinigami's stomach. But now here he was, on top of the Hokage monument, although the village looked the same he knew immediately that he was somewhere else. There was no sign of any living souls and the sky was quite stormy.

"_Is this Shinigami's domain?"_ Minato thought to himself.

"Minato."

Minato visibly shook when he heard the voice, it was the voice of his beloved. He turned around to see Kushina standing and just by looking at her face anyone could tell that she was also clueless of what was happening.

"Kushina, is that really you?" Nothing was making any sense to Minato and he didn't liked it.

"**Maybe I could help you regarding this situation." **

Both Minato and Kushina turned toward the voice.

There was a person sitting, more like floating in mid-air, there were eight lightning orbs circling behind him in a relaxed manner. He was wearing blue kimono and it had white lighting streak marks all over it. He was wearing a demonic looking mask, with horns and large ears.

Being an Uzumaki, Kushina knew about the God masks, and from the feeling she was getting from the person, it told her that he was not a normal being.

"Are you by any chance, Lord Raijin?" Kushina asked politely, she was short tempered but not stupid.

"**One and only. Now let's skip all the formalities, shall we? I will tell you what is going on as we are a bit short on time."** Seeing both of them nodding with open mouth, Raijin chuckled a bit.

"**This is about your son, and he is perfectly fine."** Raijin added when he saw the parents tensed hearing their son's name. **"Naruto is quite an interesting child. He is hot headed and does things before thinking, but his heart is on the right place."** Minato looked at Kushina who blushed after hearing Raijin's words.

"**Now, Kushina, was it?" **Kushina nodded,** "You know about the Uzumaki mask temple, right? Something happened to the temple and your son came in contact with my mask and yes, he wore it."**

Kushina gasped loudly and started to shake. Minato paled as well because he also heard about the masks, the masks helped the wearer's to call gods and deities but all of them had a huge drawback. The price of the summoning was severe and stronger the summon, the more severe the price. And Raijin was one of the major Shinto God…..

"**Nothing harmful happened to him, so relax."** Raijin said softly, hearing his reassuring voice, Kushina felt all her stress leaving her. She almost fell down but Minato caught her.

"Is he really fine or does he has to…" Minato asked with trembled voice, although he couldn't finish the sentence Raijin knew what he meant.

"**Your son somehow bypassed all the rules and codes for summoning a divine being. For now I would chalk it up as luck. But I did test him, two times."** Raijin replied.

"**The first test was to see his will and spirit and he passed, so I gave him my blessing as a reward and cause of that he awakened unique powers. In your term, you could say he got a bloodline."** Raijin chuckled when he saw Minato and Kushina was looking at him with wide eyes.

"**The next test was to see if he had the courage and determination to stand by his belief. And he passed that with flying colors. And the reward for that was, he got to spend one day with his family."** Raijin finished.

"So you revived us for one day?" Kushina asked.

"**Even though I am a Shinto God, I have to follow some protocols. Reviving you two is out of my jurisdiction and also problematic when one of your soul belongs to Shinigami. But luckily, both of you had left some chakra and a bit of life force inside Naruto. With my power I was able to extend your time from there." **Raijin explained.

"So after we spend our time, we go back to the seal?" Minato asked.

"**Unfortunately no."** Raijin shook his head.

Minato's shoulder slumped a bit, without their help later Naruto would have hard time concerning the Kyuubi.

"So when can we meet our son?" Kushina was getting impatient. She also had the same thought as her husband but for now the only thing she cared was to meet her son. In a way, she was glad that she get to meet him early in his life and she would have lots of time to spend with him.

Raijin chuckled.

"**Sooner than you think. There is a few more things that you have to know but my friend will tell you and your son about that later."**

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XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

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**Present Time**

Naruto visibly shook when he saw the two people but calmed himself down.

"Hello, Mom, Dad."

Minato and Kushina would have run and hug their little boy if it wasn't for a giant wolf standing behind him. Being elite shinobi, they sensed similar power like Raijin coming from the wolf.

"**I won't get in the way of this long awaited family reunion so I will be quick." **Raiju said,** "Lord Raijin must have told you two about me. I am Raiju, his lordship's companion." **Pointing at Minato and Kushina he added,** "You two will have till midnight to stay with your son but you cannot go outside of this compound. I have put another divine barrier on top of the seal barrier around this place. So no matter what you do**_**, except for blowing up this place**_**, no one from outside will sense your presence. With that I will take my leave." **After saying his part, Raiju vanished in a lightning flash.

"_It looked similar to my Hiraishin."_ Minato thought.

There was an awkward silence as no one knew what to do, then Kushina decided to break the ice.

"Naruto," Kushina crouched down a little bit, "Do you know who I am?" Her gentle yet trembling voice was more than enough.

Naruto ran toward Kushina and hugged her with all his might.

"Mom! Mom!" Naruto semi-yelled while sobbing.

Kushina gently stroked Naruto's hair, her tears ran down freely as well.

"Yes, I am your mother, Naruto." Kushina replied.

Minato and Hinata looked lovingly at the duo.

"Hey there little fellow, you know who I am?" Minato asked in a cheerful voice to lighten up the mood.

Naruto let go of his mother and ran toward Minato. Thinking he wanted to give Minato a hug as well, Minato opened his arm in a gesture to receive his son's hug. Unfortunately for Minato, he didn't receive the same warm welcoming as Kushina. Naruto punched Minato with all his might but even though he was tall for his age, he was not as tall a sixteen years old. So instead of stomach, his punch went somewhere lower.

Minato squeaked as he hold his crown and fell down.

Naruto ran back to Hinata and hid behind her.

Another awkward silence hung in the air.

"Umm, Naruto-kun, I didn't mean to literally hug and punch, you know." Hinata said meekly.

"Son, you shouldn't punch a man there." Minato said with a croaked voice from his position.

"Screw you, you shitty dad! You are dead, you don't have any use for that." Naruto growled.

Hinata blushed hearing that while Kushina narrowed her eyes. She got angry not because of what Naruto did to Minato, she had an idea of why he did that, but

"Watch your language, mister. Where is your manner?" Kushina scolded Naruto in a motherly tone.

"Well I didn't have _anyone_ to teach me any manner." Naruto replied softly.

"What do you mean you didn't have anyone?" Kushina said in a dangerous tone.

All of the people present in the room visibly gulped when they saw the dark aura coming from Kushina. Recovering from his son's attack, Minato tried to diffuse the situation,

"Naruto, don't you know Jiraiya?" Minato asked.

"Who?" Naruto grumbled at him.

"He is one the legendary sanin, Naruto-kun?" Hinata whispered to him. Minato and Kushina both saw the interactions between Naruto and Hinata from the start and they wanted to ask a lot of questions but they knew they had to take it slow. And seeing that Hinata was calming down Naruto, they still didn't say anything to Hinata.

"What does a sanin gotta do with me?" Naruto asked.

"Umm, then do you know about Kakashi?" Minato asked nervously, he could feel his wife's penetrating glare toward him.

"You mean the lazy-ass Cyclops sensei from team seven? Ya, what about him?" From Naruto's tone both Minato and Kushina understood that there was no bond between them.

"What about Mikoto-chan and Hitomi-chan?" Kushina asked this time.

Hearing her mother's name, Hinata gasped loudly. Kushina was waiting for a chance like this.

"At least you know basic manner, don't you? Why didn't you introduce your little friend here?" Kushina said in a light angry tone.

Both Naruto and Hinata started to fidget, but Naruto knew he should have introduced Hinata to his parents from the start.

"Sorry Mom, this is Hinata-chan." Naruto blushed a bit before adding, "My girlfriend."

Kushina's mood did a hundred eighty degree turn. Suddenly an idea hit her. She stomped toward the kids and seeing her coming Naruto hugged Hinata tighter. Naruto was scared but somehow this feeling was different. Before he knew it, Kushina chopped Naruto's head lightly. Naruto let go of Hinata and touched his sore spot which was exactly what Kushina was wanting,

She snatched Hinata and as she picked her up, she looked at the boys,

"You two fix this mess while I will have a talk with my daughter-in-law." Kushina said.

"Mom!" Naruto screamed while blushing whereas Hinata buried her face in Kushina's shoulder.

"Oh sorry, my _future_ daughter-in-law. But! I want everything to be settled when I am done. Understood!" Kushina said with a smile that didn't reach her eyes.

"Y-Yes!" Both Minato and Naruto replied together.

Kushina left the room with Hinata leaving Minato and Naruto alone with each other.

Minato looked at Naruto hopefully but it was crushed when Naruto growled at him and looked away. Minato knew Naruto was angry at him and he clearly knew why but he also sensed that Naruto's anger was not out of hatred, it was more like he was pissed off at him.

Minato remembered something, he chuckled inwardly as he started to go with his plan.

For Naruto he was a lot angry but it started to lessen when he saw his parents and after the stunt he pulled. But still he felt like he should make his father sweat a bit more before he could think of forgiving him.

Suddenly there was a noise and when Naruto looked to see what it was, he was stunned. There was a blue orb in Minato's hand. It was as if the orb was made of pure chakra which was rotating in all direction. To Naruto, it was incredibly beautiful and like a moth to a flame, Naruto slowly started to approach to the orb meanwhile Minato was slowly backing his hand so his son could come closer to him.

Naruto jerked back as if realization hit him.

"You ain't bribing me with some cool ass jutsu, you shitty dad!" Naruto shouted but his eyes were glued to the orb.

The orb vanished but before Naruto could say anything Minato disappeared in a yellow flash and reappeared within few seconds in same manner, holding some scrolls.

"Really? Too bad, I was thinking of telling you the secrets of my most prized jutsu, the Hiraishin. After all it is a jutsu that won Konoha the last war, made me an S rank shinobi in my early life, gave me the 'flee on sight' mark on bingo book and also the jutsu was so strong that I thought that with a few variation it could be marked as SS rank jutsu. And as my son I was thinking of teaching you that, along with my other valued techniques." Minato said while shaking his head.

By now, Naruto was openly drooling. He cleaned his mouth with the back of his hand,

"If you are that desperate to make amends than we can work something out."

Minato's grin reached his ears.

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With Kushina and Hinata

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Even though Kushina went out of the room, she didn't leave the place as she stood behind the wall to hear what was happening, in mid-way both she and Hinata peeked to see what was going on.

After Minato successfully bribed Naruto, he took Naruto and teleported to somewhere.

Kushina just shook his head, she didn't know whether to laugh or smack her husband.

"Naruto always had a weak spots against cool-looking jutsu." Hinata said.

"Just like his dad." Kushina smiled, "Enough of my stupid boys, I want to know more about you." Kushina said with sparkling eyes making Hinata more nervous.

"Ahh, did you know my mother?" Hinata said as she remembered Kushina saying her mother's name.

"Hitomi is your mother? Now that you mention it you have her hair and even that kind and meek attitude of hers. Damn, I can't believe that my son really bagged such a beautiful clan heiress." Kushina smirked.

"I-I am not that beautiful." Hinata stuttered while blushing furiously, she heard that a lot of times in these past few months but coming from Naruto's mother was something else.

"Nah, Hitomi was really gorgeous and looking at you I can say you may become even more beautiful than her." Kushina giggled, "My grandchildren are going to be adorable!"

Hinata knew anymore and she might faint. So trying to save her from the embarrassment she tried to change the topic.

"What does my mother has to do anything with Naruto's childhood?" Hinata asked politely.

"You see, when I was pregnant with Naruto we chose his godparents and guardians if something were to happen to us. Minato chose Jiraiya, his mentor, as Naruto's godfather and if he faced issues than Minato's student Kakashi would take care of Naruto. Mikoto and Hitomi were my best-friends, but Hitomi suggested that I make Mikoto Naruto's godmother as Hyuuga were strict but she assured me if something would go wrong then she would take care of Naruto." Kushina explained with a smile.

Hinata smiled but it was full of sadness, she knew who Mikoto was. It would be really hard to tell Naruto's mother that her best friends were not amongst the living anymore.

"Kushina-san, you see…..

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With Minato and Naruto

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Minato took Naruto to the compound's private dojo.

"Before we begin Naruto, can we talk?" Minato asked, Naruto grumbled but didn't say anything.

"Do you know what happened thirteen years ago?" Hearing Minato's question, Naruto look down.

"You mean how everything was going fine until that one guy came and destroyed everything?" For a brief moment there was pure hatred flashed through Naruto's eyes, but it was gone as fast as it came, "Also how you foolishly sacrificed yourself to seal Kyuubi inside me? Why didn't you went with mom's idea? At least you could have lived, at least I would have a father?" Naruto started to sob lightly.

Minato crouched down and put his hand on Naruto's head.

"When I defeated that guy, he said that something world-changing was going to happen soon and I knew he would come for Kyuubi again. That moment I didn't think for the present or near future, I thought about the future further ahead. I guess that is the curse of being a prodigy." Naruto looked up when he heard that and saw pure sadness and regret lingered in the great Fourth's face.

"Prodigy never thinks for the present, they always think about the future, what would happen if one small incident would go wrong, would it cause war or peace or something far worse. Not looking at the near future I unfairly put a great burden on your shoulder, Naruto. But despite all these, I want you to know that I didn't choose the village over you. I love the village as the Hokage but I love you and my family more." Minato smiled.

"I choose you because if anyone would rise up to stop that unforeseen disaster, it would be my son. And I sealed Kyuubi inside you because I know that if anyone can fully control Kyuubi's power it would be you. Also who can I trust more to keep Kyuubi away from that man's hand than my son?" Minato finished his explanation with a sad smile.

Naruto started to cry openly,

"That's unfair, I can't be angry at you if you say something like this." Naruto said between his sobs.

"I am sorry son." Minato wiped the tears away from Naruto. Naruto looked at Minato than he reached out and wipe away his father's tears. Minato smiled as he ruffled Naruto's hair. He stood up and looked at Naruto,

"So are you still on about learning my jutsu?" Minato said with a grin.

"Hell Yes!" Naruto shouted as his sadness was replaced by pure enthusiasm.

"But first, I heard that you awakened a bloodline, which one is it?" Minato asked, he was curious to see what his son had.

"You won't guess dad, I got the one and only, "Maelstrom release". Oh it is an upgraded version of "Storm Release"." Hearing the answer Minato's eyebrows shot up.

"What do you mean by upgraded version?"

"Well normal Storm release uses combination of two elements but mine can use combination of three elements. Although Raiju-san said I am not ready for that yet as most of those Maelstrom jutsu are too high level for me." Naruto explained.

"Wow, you got a Kekkei Tota. Things will be interesting it seems, show me your jutsu later as for now I will show you mine first. With the time limit we have, I will show you two of my strongest Jutsu and will explain how they work. But from after that, it is up to you." Minato said, Naruto nodded back.

"Ok first is this." With that Minato held out his hand and then the spiraling orb appeared.

"This is rasengan. It is a seal-less jutsu and quite versatile. It took me quite some time to create this." Minato said.

"Wow, that's so cool. I also have a seal-less jutsu." With that Naruto started to ready his own one.

"Storm Release: Divine fist."

Minato just gaped at the jutsu, Naruto's arm from elbow down was covered with thick tamed lightning and it looked as if it was a chakra arm from jinchuriki's chakra cloak mode but with thicker chakra. But Naruto let go of the jutsu quite quickly.

"Damn it is still hard to maintain it." Naruto grumbled.

"I am impressed Naruto, I can say it is one of a kind jutsu, not many people can make jutsu like that in your age. Hmm, if you compare the two jutsu, power wise I think yours may pack more punch than Rasengan but flexibility wise Rasengan wins." Minato said with a proud voice. Naruto beamed up when he heard that.

"Also, Rasengan isn't complete. I wanted to add element chakra to it but I failed. Maybe you can finish the jutsu for me." Minato grinned.

"Of course, you can count on me, dad." Naruto replied with pure determination.

"Ok, now to find those training balloons." Minato went to check on nearby storage.

"Training balloons?"

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With Kushina and Hinata

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"I am sorry." Kushina said as she gently stroke Hinata's hair, after hearing what had happened to her best friends she was depressed but she tried to soothe Hinata who seemed more disheartened than her.

"You know, instead of past, let's talk about present and future. What is going on in the village right now?" Kushina asked, although she wanted to ask more about Hinata and Naruto she refrained herself as she wanted to hear those kind of things in front of her son.

"We are having one month break for our Chunin Finals." Hinata replied, somehow she was enjoying this.

"Really? You and Naruto both are in Chunin Finals? This is your first shinobi year, isn't it?" Hinata nodded to Kushin's question.

"Amazing. Even for our generation, we took chunin exams at our second year. So how is your progress?" Kushina asked excitedly.

Hinata then gave Kushina the summarized version of what she needed to do and who was against her.

"I never liked those Kumo-nin. Wait a minute, I think I can help your taijutsu." With that Kushina suddenly release chakra chains from all her body. Hinata jumped a bit when she saw that.

"This is chakra chain, it is kind of a bloodline technique but I think with my help you can make something similar." Kushina said giddily.

"How can I do something that belongs to another bloodline?" Hinata asked.

"Now, now; don't fret on the small stuffs." Kushina waved Hinata's question off. Hinata then understood where Naruto got his 'Do first think later' attitude from.

"Now let's go to the dojo, I am sure we can find the boys there too."

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At the Dojo

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Minato just got the training balloons prepared when Kushina and Hinata came in.

"You are teaching him the rasengan?" Kushina said, she looked at Hinata then beamed up, "Guess his girlfriend is allowed to learn it as well, don't you think."

"Hinata, was it?" Minato asked, Hinata nodded shyly.

"She is Hitomi's daughter." Kushina giggled.

"Really?" Minato was surprised and then he looked at Naruto and gave him a thumbs up. Both Naruto and Hinata blushed fiercely.

"Would you cut it out? So what are these balloons for?" Naruto tried to steer the conversation.

"Before that, Hinata; you will be learning a lot of things and I am ok with you coming here anytime with Naruto to learn more, you can use anything you want but make sure Naruto is here with you. What I want you to do, is to promise me that whatever you will learn here and through Naruto, you will not tell the process to anyone else. Not your family or your clan, can you do that?" Minato said seriously.

"Yes, I promise on my nindo that I will not divulge any training method or styles to anyone else." Hinata replied in a heartbeat. Minato smiled when he heard Hinata's quick answer.

"But be sure to teach these to my grandchildren." Kushina said in a serious voice.

Hinata wished that she was wearing her bulky jacket, than she could hide herself there.

"Now onto the training."

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XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

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**Outside of Konoha**

Orochimaru was looking at a map when he heard the knock.

"What is it, Kabuto?"

Kabuto entered, everything was moving according to the plan but there was one setback that ticked Orochimaru off.

"Is there no other way to revive the Fourth except that mask?" Kabuto asked.

"Fourth's soul belongs to the Shinigami, I wanted to use the mask of Shinigami to take his soul temporary. If only the team I sent to fetch it didn't mess things up." Orochimaru grumbled, not looking at Kabuto.

"Well, I think some severe problems arose, they were too well-trained to fail something this simple." Kabuto gave his thought.

"It matters not at this point. The Uzumaki temple is one of the most guarded place without anyone actually guarding it." Orochimaru finally looked at Kabuto, "How are those two doing?"

"They are going to be fine. But are you sure you want to use them?" Kabuto asked.

"Kumo is plotting something, unfortunately I know it is going to crash with my plan. And without the fourth and Kazekage, I am not taking any risk." Orochimaru said.

"As you wish." Saying his part, Kabuto left.

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**Finished.**

**I chose Hitomi as Hinata's mother's name because I saw lot of fanfic using that name.**

**Next chapter will be about training and not just of Naruto and Hinata's.**

**Hope you enjoyed this chapter.**

**Till next time.**


	27. Chapter 27 : Training with Family

**Here is the new chapter, one more chapter till the chunin exam. **

**I don't know if I am good with writing emotional parts but hope you guys like it.**

_**Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto.**_

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"So you are telling me, to learn one of the most awesome jutsu ever, I have to burst balls?" Naruto raised his eyebrow.

"Language, Naruto." Kushina chided.

"Balloons. Now, when people think about high level strong jutsu, they start to think complicated methods to learn them, in most cases it may be true but there are exceptions. I am pretty sure your Divine fist is one of them." Minato replied, Naruto nodded his head in understanding.

"Also I usually don't tell the next steps of training till you finish the previous one but cause of the circumstances this time I will bend the rules." Minato added.

Naruto and Hinata nodded together.

"First you have to burst a water balloon." Minato took a water balloon, it started to vibrate violently and it popped within seconds. "This is the first stage of rasengan training which emphasizes rotation."

Minato took a rubber ball and he destroyed it similarly, "The second stage is to burst a rubber ball. This step emphasizes power." Minato added.

"Third and final stage is to," Minato took a normal balloon but after a while nothing happened.

"Well, what is the last step?" Naruto asked.

"The rasengan is inside the balloon." Hinata said as she had activated her eyes.

"Yup, Hinata is right. The third and final step is to combine both step one and two by spinning chakra inside a balloon without moving or harming the balloon itself. It emphasizes stability of the sphere shape." Minato finished his explanation.

"I don't expect you to complete all these steps by today but I want to see the progress of your first step, me and Kushina will help you two. So let's get started."

With that Minato gave water balloons to Naruto and Hinata.

Half an hour passed by but there was no result. For Naruto, he started to use chakra to burst the balloon right from the start but for Hinata, after trying few times, she stopped to observe and noticed that for them the balloon was going flat instead of vibrating. Hinata went to Minato,

"Umm, Minato-san, is it ok if you show the first step again." Hinata requested.

Minato grinned when he saw Hinata activated her Byakugan the moment he agreed.

Minato did the first step again but this time he slowly burst the balloon on purpose. Hinata eyes widened as if she understood what they were doing wrong.

Thanking Minato, Hinata went and took another balloon and started to spin her chakra inside, being a Hyuuga, she had a lot of knowledge and experience about chakra control and manipulation. After few tries, she was able to burst the water balloon.

"Wow, you did it Hinata-chan." Naruto dropped his balloon and came to congratulate Hinata.

"Thanks Naruto-kun. Let me help you with the training, you are doing it in the wrong way." Hinata said between her panting.

"How so?" Naruto asked.

"First, we are supposed to rotate the chakra from various direction but till now we only rotated it from one way. Also it will be easy to pass this method if you know your natural chakra rotation path." Hinata explained, although Naruto didn't know what Hinata meant but he went with the flow.

Within five minutes, Naruto was able to burst his first water balloon.

"Bravo. I wish I had a Hyuuga partner like you Naruto." Minato laughed but quickly added, "A guy partner." When he felt Kushina's raging glare.

"Also we had a feeling that Hinata may be able to finish the first step faster than Naruto and I think she may be able to finish the third step quickly as well but the second step will be easier to Naruto." Kushina said.

"Yes, but Hinata, checking your chakra reserve I can say that even if you learn Rasengan, you won't be able to use it more than one to two times in a day. Naruto, on the other hand, can throw rasengan left and right, after he learns it." Minato added.

"Speaking of throwing Rasengan, dad, why didn't you try to throw the rasengan?" Naruto questioned.

"Nice one there son. I tried but it doesn't work as well as close range. Rasengan is a self-sustaining jutsu but you have to maintain it's sustainability within your palm. If you try to throw it, the stability of the sphere gets disrupted making the damage output decreasing by a lot. It was one of the things I was trying to fix but hopefully you can do it my place." Minato replied.

"You can bet on it, Dad." Naruto gave a thumbs up.

"And for you Hinata, take the trainings a bit slowly, it is rather taxing for people who have average level of chakra reserve. Although your chakra control can make up for it, don't push it too far if you are training alone." Kushina advised Hinata.

"So practice the first step some more and after that you can proceed to the next step. Unfortunately we have to move on our next training schedule." Minato said.

"Hinata-chan, come with me. I want to try what we discussed earlier." Kushina pulled Hinata away and went to a different place.

Minato waited till Hinata and Kushina left.

"Naruto, I think it is time for the main dish." Minato chuckled lightly.

"You mean, you are going to teach me the Hiraishin now?" Naruto shouted excitedly.

"I wish I could buddy. But this is one jutsu that you have to learn by yourself, I can only give you pointers but the rest is up to you. This is an S class jutsu after all." Minato said softly making sure not to crush Naruto's hope.

"Is it really that hard?" Naruto asked.

"Yes it is. Why not I break it down slowly? Hiraishin is a Space–Time Ninjutsu. To activate this technique, you have to place a special seal or 'technique formula' to mark an intended destination. After this is done, you need to enter a 'dimensional void' at will that instantaneously transports you to the location of the seal. You still with me, Naruto?" Minato said to Naruto who was thinking deeply.

"Got a bit, dad. But what is 'technique formula' and 'dimensional void'?" Naruto asked.

"Well for my case, 'technique formula' is the pinnacle of Fuinjutsu and 'dimensional void' is a very high level elemental Ninjutsu. By using 'technique formula' I mark where I want to travel, be it a person, object or place. Even if I am far away, the mark not only gives me a three dimensional image and coordination of my destination but also the vision of surrounding area if the marked object is moving. And for 'dimensional void' I use the highest level of Shunshin no Jutsu and I call it 'Lightning void Shunshin'. By using it I warp myself to my marked place." Minato explained.

"Uh huh, so you use one jutsu to mark the target and one more to travel to the target." Naruto said back.

"Well put son. Yes one to 'Mark' and one to 'Travel'. When you combine these two you get the basic Hiraishin." Minato patted Naruto's head.

"Can I use other way to learn the 'Mark' and 'Travel' techniques?" Naruto asked.

"I think you can. The Hiraishin was created by the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, actually. He used Fuinjutsu to mark the target and to travel he used combination of fuinjutsu and ninjutsu. I don't know exactly how he achieved it but it means that there are other ways you can complete Hiraishin." Minato replied.

"Glad to know that dad. Because I know nothing about fuinjutsu." Naruto's shoulder slumped a bit.

"Like I said, there may be other ways to accomplish this feat, you just have to be creative. I will give you the research papers and also books about fuinjutsu." Minato ruffled Naruto's hair.

"Thanks dad, can we see it now?" Naruto said with sparkling eyes.

"Why not?" And how could Minato refuse that.

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With Kushina and Hinata

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"Kushina-san, I don't think I can learn something like a passive bloodline." Hinata said meekly.

"Hinata-chan, do you know why Minato sealed mine and his chakra inside Naruto?" Hinata shook her head, seeing that Kushina elaborated, "Because in the near future, Naruto will be needing Kyuubi's power and we wanted to help him anyway we can. But then this happened, although this is something I really wished for to occur but I am scared that Naruto may have trouble when confronting Kyuubi. So this is why, I want you to be there for him instead of us." Kushina gently held Hinata's small hands.

"And I know you will not be fully able to use chakra chains but there is something I want to try out, if it is ok with you?" Kushina added. Hinata nodded softy.

"I want to embed some Fuinjutsu marks inside your body and by using those seals it might be possible for you to use something similar, theoretically speaking." Kushina said to Hinata.

"Will it have any side-effect?" Hinata asked.

"Of course not. I don't want my future daughter-in-law to have any problems regarding this." Kushina said with mock angry tone. Hinata blushed furiously, she knew that if she tried to argue Kushina would just argue back strongly. But Hinata knew that a part of her mind was enjoying these teasing moments and if she were to be honest, she _did_ have fantasies regarding marriage.

"So want to try it out, Hinata-chan?" Kushina asked.

"Yes, I want to be strong enough to protect Naruto-kun." Hinata replied back with determination.

Kushina's smile grew by tenfold.

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**With Others**

**Sasuke**

"So are you getting used to it?" Kakashi asked.

"Don't have any other choice, now do I? But how did you get ahold of this kind of weapon?" Sasuke asked back.

"You are forgetting that I was an Anbu captain and did a lot of high level jobs, I found it in an abandoned place and a senior of mine tweaked it a bit." Kakashi explained.

"So why don't you use it?" Sasuke pointed out.

"Not my type of weapon and besides I think this suits you better?" Kakashi said while scratching his head.

"You just wanted to pass down the weapon to someone cause you can't use it yourself, right?" Sasuke narrowed his eyes.

Kakashi just gave his signature eye smile.

"_I really got a great sensei, lucky me."_ Sasuke thought sarcastically.

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With Haku

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"So are you getting used to it?" Yamato asked.

"It's a bit hard fighting like this but it will get easier soon. And also I think I can get used to this new style. It will come handy in the future battles." Haku replied.

"Glad you liked it. Although mastering this with your weapon and ninjutsu training will be really hard as we only have less than a month. But I am pretty sure you will do fine." Yamato said proudly.

"Thanks sensei. Although I think the hardest part will be combining all these three. Let's hope for the best for now." Haku said back.

"I will talk to Gai, I know he is training Hinata but maybe he can give you a few pointers. Fighting against him in mock battles will also boost your experience by a lot." Yamato told Haku.

"As long as it doesn't hinder Hinata-chan's training, I am fine with it." Haku told her thought.

Yamato shook his head positively. Haku smiled back,

"_I really got a great sensei, lucky me."_ Haku thought thankfully.

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With Ranmaru

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"What do you think, Ranmaru-kun?" Kurenai asked.

"I think I am getting used to it but it is harder than I thought, I may have to improve my concentration." Ranmaru replied.

"Yes, here concentration is the key, using genjutsu like this is not an easy feat. Usually Jonins do that but because of your special condition I want you to try it out. Also, you need a backup plan cause for now genjutsu is the only weapon you got." Kurenai said.

"I know." Ranmaru said dejectedly.

Kurenai went to Ranmaru and started to rub his head.

"Ranmaru, the chunin exam is not about winning or losing. It's about showing everyone what you are capable of. Not every missions goes the way you want in real world, sometimes you have to fight against large odds with what you have. Through this exam the Hokage will be able to see if you have the capability of doing that or no." Kurenai said gently.

Ranmaru looked at Kurenai and smiled.

"Why not we take a break for today and go somewhere?" Kurenai suggested.

"Where?"

"To meet someone, I think you and that girl will become good friend."

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With the Third

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"So, Orochimaru is going to make a move in the chunin exam?" Jiraiya said.

"Yes but the worst part is that he has the backup of sound and maybe suna village as well." Hiruzen sighed.

"I told you long time ago to fix the problem with the wind Daimyo. So what are you going to do now? What would you do if it is an all-out invasion?" Jiraiya asked.

"It would be risky to spread this information around and riskier if I tried to go talk to the Kazekage now. But don't forget Jiraiya, I was Orochimaru's sensei. I know how he thinks, there are few things that I would like for you to look into." Hiruzen said.

"Fine by me. But how is Naruto doing?" Jiraiya finally said what he wanted to know the most.

"About Naruto….."

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**Back with the Family**

"How does this seal works, Kushina-san?" Hinata asked. Kushina took some time to put one seal on Hinata's right arm.

"It's simple, this seal is known as "Eight Trigrams Sealing Style". I put my own chakra and a part of my chakra chains in the seal. In time this seal will let my power merge with your own. Kind of like how Naruto's seal is but because my chakra doesn't have a consciousness there will be no problem in the merging. Also I tweaked it a bit so you can use my chakra chains now, _I hope_. But when the chakra will merge, your power may differ from mine. Why not give it a try now? Focus your chakra on your arm, especially on the seal." Kushina asked.

Hinata nodded. She moved away from Kushina and pointed her fist toward a wooden doll. She focused her chakra on her arm and while doing so, she could feel that something was absorbing her chakra. She concentrated more on her arm and she could feel her chakra was trying to materialize but it wasn't able to fully take a form as if she didn't have enough chakra. She thought for few seconds and then,

She made a swipe motion with her hands and solid chakra needles came out of her hand. When the chakra needles hit the wooden doll, it went right through the doll.

"Wow. That was surprising." Kushina was stunned.

"Sorry, Kushina-san but I don't think I have enough chakra yet to form a chain. So I thought why not go for something smaller." Hinata said bashfully.

"That's ingenious!" Kushina shouted as she engulfed Hinata with a bear hug.

"_Guess Naruto got that part from his mother."_

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With Minato and Naruto

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"Wow, that's a lot of research paper." Naruto said with a sweat-drop.

"You don't learn one of the strongest S rank jutsu by popping balloons." Minato laughed.

"Huh, I will evolve rasengan into an S rank jutsu and then will throw it into your face." Naruto smirked.

"You're welcome to try." Minato grinned back.

"Also Naruto, I raised the security seals around the house and the special rooms' higher and they can only be opened if you put your signature key-mark into them." Minato added.

"What's signature key-mark?" Naruto asked.

"Simply put, some seal need specific people's chakra to open, some seals need the DNA and some requires another seal. This special seal needs all of them, when you come and touch it physically it will scan your chakra, DNA and the seal inside you. Only then it will open." Minato explained and when he saw Naruto wanted to say something, he added, "For your girlfriend, just bring her along with you."

"Let's go, it's lunch time. I am pretty sure your mother wants all of us to eat together."

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In the Dining Room

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Kushina was preparing the meal with Hinata who insisted to help.

"Is there anything more you like to learn, Naruto?" Minato asked. Naruto's heart fell as he remembered that all this happiness and joy was just for one day.

"It's ok dad, I think knowing about your those two jutsu is more than enough. I just want to spend some time with both of you." Naruto's voice became lower at the end. Minato looked at Naruto sadly as he could also feel the time slipping by.

"Naruto, why didn't you tell me that Hinata was a great cook?" Kushina asked as she came into the table and sat down with Hinata. Her clones came and served the food.

"See Hinata-chan, even mom thinks you are the best." Naruto smirked at Hinata who looked away with a red face. Kushina raised an eye-brow at this and Minato smiled.

"So tell me, who confessed first?" Kushina asked gleefully.

Then the teasing and laughter began. Naruto told that with the help of a friend he came up with a genius master plan for his date and confessed to Hinata at the end, he couldn't possibly tell his parents that his friend was some adult books. Hinata would laugh and try to fix some exaggerated parts but Naruto would make some cheeky comments to Hinata who in return would blush. Minato and Kushina was enjoying this a lot. For them, it was more than they had ever hoped to see.

"By the way, Hinata-chan. I think I should warn you one thing about Uzumaki." Kushina suddenly cut in. "Uzumaki are passionate people, whether it be fighting, hobby, learning or _loving_ their cherished person."

Hinata chocked on her food as she got the hidden meaning behind Kushina's words and Minato just blushed and looked away. Naruto just smiled as he was unable to look underneath his mom's words.

"Of course I love Hinata and," Naruto wanted to make a sassy comment and his mind showed him some particular words from a particular book, "And even if she gets tired of it, I will keep making love to her passionately."

Now Kushina choked on her food and Minato gawked at his son. Hinata was on the verge of fainting and for Naruto, he was having a bigger smile.

"Naruto," Naruto looked at his mom, "Although I appreciate that you love your girlfriend that much but I would suggest you to wait a few more years at least." Kushina added immediately, "But don't wait too long."

Hinata fainted.

After the lunch, Naruto went with his mother while Minato wanted to talk with Hinata.

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Naruto and Kushina

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Unlike Minato, when Kushina was alone with Naruto instead of talking about jutsu, Kushina wanted to know about Naruto's life. Naruto started to tell AFTER he was released from a huge bone-crushing hug.

"So after that Ranmaru-kun started to live with you? Along with Haku?" Kushina said.

"Yes, I wish you could meet them, they are both really, really nice. Haku-nee is kind, confident and clever, too clever while Ranmaru-kun is like how Hinata is. Shy, kind and easy to tease." Naruto laughed and Kushina joined him as well.

"I do wish I could meet them. I always wanted to see Ice release up close." Kushina added.

"Ice release is pretty cool and I didn't even tell you the best part. I think Sasuke is totally into Haku-nee." Naruto snickered, he had seen few interactions between Haku and Sasuke. Hearing that Kushina went silent for a while.

"Naruto, you have a great friend circle. You, Hinata, Haku and Ranmaru. All of you have lost your family…"

"Hinata's dad is alive though." Naruto cut in.

"That stuck up asshole doesn't count! Now where was I, uh yes, so you see, could you accept Sasuke into your group as well? He is like all of you but much worse. He needs friends, good and trusting friends. Her mother promised to look after you if something were to happen to me and I did the same promise, but as we both couldn't keep our promises, could you do it instead of us." Kushina said.

"OK, I will try." Naruto replied.

"Thanks, son. Now Hinata told me that you are good with Kenjutsu and on top of that you got Kiba, one of the mist swords. So, where is the sword?" Kushina asked.

"About that,"

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Flashback

"_Raiju-san, where the hell are my swords?" Naruto yelled._

"_**Don't worry about them, they were damaged….."**_

"_What? They are broken?" Naruto almost fainted._

"_**Calm down, they were damaged a bit and because of that I will re-forge those swords back using my powers. The down side is, it will take some time but you will get them back before the exam."**__ Raiju replied._

"_Will it get any power-up now that you are fixing them? Can you make them look cooler?" Naruto said with expectation._

"_**I will see what I can do."**__ Raiju laughed._

Flashback Ends

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"They are under maintenance." Naruto said dryly.

"You have to learn how to take care of your stuffs, Naruto." Kushina chided, "Well, at least show me what skills you got."

Naruto smirked hearing that.

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Minato and Hinata

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Minato took Hinata to one of his study rooms.

"Hinata-chan, I know that you already promised me but I am asking you again, can you keep the events that happened today a secret?" Minato asked sincerely.

"Of course, Minato-san." Hinata replied in a heart-beat.

"Thank you. The jutsu that resides in this house are much more dangerous than ones in the forbidden scrolls. And there is a reason for it. I will tell both of you later. Now the reason why I brought you here, was this." Minato handed Hinata a giant scroll.

"Is it a jutsu?" Hinata asked but Minato shook his head negatively, he had a smirk in his face. Hinata said nothing more as she opened the scroll.

She saw and read about them so she instantly knew what this scroll about.

"It's a summoning scroll, but which animal race does it belong to?" Hinata inquired but the curious part was there was only one name was written there.

"Honestly, I don't know. I got it in a mission but was unable to summon any of them. Why not you try it out? I think Naruto already have enough on his hand right now." Minato confessed.

"Really? But…." Hinata couldn't finish,

"Just give it a try." Minato smiled.

Feeling confident, Hinata wrote her name beside the first name, with her blood. Then Minato showed her the hand-seals. Hinata made the hand-seals,

"Summoning jutsu." Hinata slammed her palm in the ground causing smokes erupting from there. But to her surprise there weren't any beasts or anything but rather there was a small floating chakra orb which gently went inside Hinata's left arm making unique markings coming out from there.

"Same thing happen to me and Kushina. When we summon this chakra orb came out, marked us and stayed with us for some time. It is as if this is to see if we are worthy as a summoner or no, if they think you are not then the mark will fully disappear and your name will be erased from the scroll." Minato explained.

"Not that I mind Minato-san but why do you think I can do it?" Hinata asked.

"I have a vague idea of what kind of summoner they want and I think you fit into the category." Minato replied.

"Now don't think too much about it and just be yourself. And also the mark will become transparent after a while so don't worry about it." Minato added.

"Let's go see what are those two doing, shall we?" Minato suggested.

Hinata nodded back.

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With Kushina and Naruto

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Minato and Hinata came right when Kushina and Naruto started to spar. Both Minato and Kushina was impressed by Naruto's swordsmanship.

"You are quite good at it Naruto. But Twin moon style; you sure know what to pick." Kushina commented after their light spar.

"Why is that mom?" Naruto asked.

"Twin moon style is one of oldest Uzumaki kenjutsu style. There are five strongest Bukijutsu styles and three of them are from Uzumaki clan. I think I have some advance scrolls regarding the twin moon one, I will give them to you later." Kushina added.

"Kushina, is it ok if I tell them about _that_." Minato suddenly spoke seriously and somehow Kushina knew what he meant. She nodded.

"Let's go to my main study room."

Everyone went to one of the furthest rooms in the house. Minato unsealed the door and took everyone inside.

"Naruto, how much do you know about the Senju clan?" Minato asked as he started to look for something in his main desk.

"Umm." Naruto looked at Hinata who smiled softly.

"Senju clan was one of the founder clans in Konoha, the first and the second Hokage of Konoha were from the Senju clan as well. Also there are quite some mysteries regarding the Senju Clan. The only other notable thing that we know is that the last of the remaining Senju alive is the granddaughter of the first Hokage, Tsunade Senju." Hinata covered Naruto.

"Ya, whatever Hinata-chan said." Naruto said boastfully as he gave Hinata a one-arm hug.

Minato and Kushina laughed at them.

"Yes but Tsunade isn't the only Senju alive. You see Naruto, the second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, had a wife but unlike his brother, Tobirama didn't made his marriage public and even hid the birth of his only child a secret. Later that child grew up, married and lived as a normal Senju in the clan as no one knew about his parenthood. He later lost his life in the war, lots of Senju did. His wife, who was on the deathbed because of a rare disease, fearing for their child's future, put the child under orphanage's care." Minato stopped to see if Naruto could connect the dots.

Minato laughed out loud when Naruto tilted his head in confusion.

"You made the exact same face of what Kushina did when I told her about this." Minato said between his laughs, Kushina blushed slightly at this.

"Naruto, I am that child. My grandfather is Tobirama Senju, meaning he is your great-grandfather. You are a Senju from my side." Minato explained.

"Senju? SENJU!" Naruto started to dance around while Hinata was stunned.

"Wait." Naruto suddenly stopped, "If I want to start my clan, can I start both Uzumaki and Senju clan?" Naruto asked remembering certain events.

"Yes it is possible, Naruto." Minato replied.

"But that would mean, I will get lots of grandchildren." Kushina smirked as she looked at Hinata who fainted immediately.

"Come on mom, stop teasing her." Naruto pouted.

"Why? Don't hog her all to yourself." Kushina pouted back.

"She is my girl, I can hog her all I want." Naruto grumbled back.

"Leave the poor girl alone for now, please. Naruto, here are the documents that prove of our lineage. I wanted to hand it to the council after you were born but guess we have to improvise now. So, when you think the time is right, give these to the Hokage. There are some other documents here, you may find some of them useful." Minato clarified.

"Why not we head back to the living room." Kushina suggested as she took Hinata from Naruto who grumbled but backed off when Kushina gave him a stern glare.

After Hinata woke up, Minato and Kushina wanted to teach them more about jutsu and other techniques but both Naruto and Hinata insisted that they instead spend the time together differently.

They shared their stories and missions, mostly the adults shared theirs.

Kushina shared her ninja life as well as the times she spend with Minato. She boasted about how she used to pummel the kids who teased her back in the academy earning her the nickname of Red Hot-Blooded Habanero. She also told the kids how she fell in love with Minato who rescued her from the Kumo ninjas. She also mentioned few events when she was older, some of which were quite interesting.

Minato told how he aspired to become Hokage, same like how Kushina wanted, when he was in the academy. He admitted that he was drawn to Kushina's bright red hair, finding it beautiful and dazzling because of which he was able to rescue her later. He also shared some of his actions during war and also the times of him being the Hokage.

After that everyone played games and studied about ninja histories together. Even though the activities were simple, for some reason, Naruto and Hinata enjoyed them greatly. They didn't even sense how time flew by and thus the dinner hour came.

But unlike the lunch time, this time the table was silent as all were aware of the approaching time. They finished their meal and gathered around the living room once again.

"Naruto," Minato was the first to break the ice, "I know how you are feeling but it is almost time for us to go. Honesty, when I sealed the chakra, I never thought I could enjoy moments like these; having family dinner, teaching my son jutsu, seeing my son all grow up and meeting someone who cares for him. Remember, there will dark hours in the near future but I know you can surpass them with your friends." Minato ruffled Naruto's hair.

Suddenly Minato and Kushina started to glow and slowly they were becoming transparent.

"Guess it's time." Minato said softly.

Kushina went and hugged Naruto and Hinata both.

"Take care of each other. No matter what happens, don't let each other go, promise me." Naruto and Hinata nodded softly with teary eyes.

"Naruto, make sure you hold onto Hinata because love is the only way to tame the Nine-Tails and overcome its hate. Hinata, please look after my boy and make sure he makes more good friends and doesn't get any bad habits. Also see if he eats healthy food as well. And, and…." Kushina couldn't say anything anymore as Naruto and Hinata hugged her back tightly.

Minato went over and gently joined the family hug.

"Take care and remember, we will be watching you." Minato and Kushina both said as they slowly disappeared.

After they completely disappeared, Naruto hugged Hinata and buried his face at her neck.

His loud sobbing was the only thing that could be heard inside the living room.

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**Done.**

**So guys, for the Kiba swords new form, I was thinking to use black and white zangetsu. Does anyone have any other ideas? **

**And for Hinata's summon, I already chose what it will be. Look forward to it.**

**Also, I hope you like the Hiraishin theory, I know there are lots of other theories out there but this is what I came up after looking into Hiraishin background.**

**Till next time.**


	28. Chapter 28 : Mending a Broken Bond

**Hello there everyone. Before I got to the story, I want to clear few things.**

**The Kiba swords will have a new improved look and it WILL NOT look like Zangetsu as everyone is saying it is overused.**

**Second, even if Sasuke gets earth element he WILL NOT get lava release and the reason I didn't go for lightning because Naruto already has lightning and if Sasuke has the same element, there wouldn't be any fun in writing.**

**Also Hinata will learn Rasengan but it will be like Kakashi, she will get her own jutsu from it and she won't be using it much. So people who are worrying about Hinata spamming Rasengan. Don't worry, it won't happen.**

**Last but not least, after a certain point I will start revising my older chapters, I am noting down the comments which points out my mistakes. If anything catches your eye, please leave a review or pm me. It will help me greatly.**

**Now onto the story. **

_**Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto.**_

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"**You ok, Naruto?"** Raiju inquired softly.

It was just yesterday that Naruto was able to meet his parents alongside Hinata, while Naruto was able to experience what it felt like to have parents but it was merely for one day. Some might say that it was much more cruel and painful. Raiju came back inside Naruto's mindscape in the morning and saw Hinata soothing Naruto for some time before she was forced, by Naruto, to go for her training. Before leaving, Hinata promised that she would come back and spend the night at the Fourth's place.

"Honestly, Raiju-san; I am not fine but I cannot sit here and mop around the floor. I have my parents' pride and legacy to uphold." Although Naruto's voice was low but his eyes had a determined look.

"**So, what are you checking now?"** Raiju was glad that Naruto didn't lose his spark.

"Fuinjutsu, I don't know a damn thing about it. But if I want to learn Hiraishin, I have to be a master at this." Naruto sighed.

"**How so?" **Raiju asked curiously. Naruto told Raiju about the basic concept of Hiraishin and how it could be achieved.

"**I see. Naruto is it ok if I take some time of yours?"** Raiju asked. Naruto shrugged and put the fuinjutsu scroll down as he relaxed and went inside his mindscape.

"So, what's up, Raiju-san?" Naruto asked the legendary beast when he was inside his mind.

"**I heard that you are a Senju from your father's side."** Raiju said as he overheard it when Naruto and Hinata was talking in the morning, Naruto nodded back.

"**That clears few things. Now, Naruto what do you know about senjutsu?"** Raiju asked. Naruto thought for some time and then,

"I got nothing." Was his reply.

"**Hmm, let's see. Senjutsu is an ancient art that allows the user to sense and gather natural energy. One who learns Senjutsu can draw the energy of nature inside of them, blending it with their own chakra. This adds a new dimension of power to the user's chakra, resulting in the creation of 'senjutsu chakra'. Well that's the basic of what Senjutsu is."** Raiju explained.

"Wow, sweet. Wait a minute. Are you going to teach me senjutsu?" Naruto almost screamed.

"**I did say I will train you this month, but before we begin training you have to know what you are going to learn."** Raiju chuckled.

"Understandable." Naruto nodded as he calmed down albeit with difficulty.

"**Now like I said to learn Senjutsu you have to gather natural energy. But can you guess what natural energy is?"** Raiju asked.

"If I were to guess, it is like the 'chakra' of the nature?" Naruto replied doubtfully.

"**In a way you are correct. Let's go a bit deeper, shall we? What is Nature? Nature is the representative of the world, so in a way you are taking energy from the world and this energy is one of the purest kind. Now what most people doesn't know that the nature or **_**the world**_** is divided into three territories. Sky, Land and Ocean. So, first you have to choose from which part of the nature you want to gather the energy from."** Raiju explained to Naruto.

"Wait, why can't I gather energy from all of them?" Naruto was puzzled.

"**Gathering chakra from all of these three territories means you can gather chakra from **_**the whole world**_** with ease. Honestly speaking, it is an impossible feat. As far as I know, only four people knew how to gather energy like that and frankly I wouldn't call them **_**Human**_**. But if you can fully master gathering energy from **_**one**_** territory, you will be as strong as a Kage. So for now, concentrate on what you can do."** Raiju cleared up the details.

"I got it but can you elaborate a bit about how the energy differs from territory to territory?" Naruto asked.

"**Good question. Well, simply put, when you collect natural energy be it from Sky, Land or Ocean you get the blessing from the respective territory. And each blessing gives your different powers, for example, 'Blessing of the Land' gives you Enhanced strength, Tough skin and 'Resonance of the Land'." **

"I can guess what Enhanced strength and Tough skin may be. But what's 'Resonance of the Land'?" Naruto interrupted.

"**How should I put this? Suppose you are fighting inside a forest or a mountain, while using Land's energy, your senses and power will increase, also it will be easier for you to access the natural energy. But it has to be natural forest or mountain, not man-made."** Raiju cleared up.

"Wow, that's so cool." Naruto's eyes sparkled.

"**Yes, and 'Blessings of the Ocean' gives you 'Aqua Protection' and 'Enhanced Rejuvenation'. I am not fully sure about the first ability but I heard that you can liquefy your body and about the second one gives you a huge boost in healing. Just by drinking pure water, your body and power will refresh."** Raiju paused to see if Naruto had any question or not, seeing that he didn't he continued,

"**And Lastly, 'Blessing of the Sky'. If I am to be honest, it suits you more than the other two. By gathering the natural chakra of the Sky, you will gain 'Levitation' and 'Resilient Body'. 'Levitation' is as it defines, you will be able to float and with time and experience you may be able to levitate other objects or people. 'Resilient Body' is similar to 'Tough Skin' but whereas Tough skin increases your physical defense, Resilient Body increases your chakra's resistance."** Raiju finished.

Naruto's jaw hit the floor, each one had its unique abilities and advantages but he had to agree with Raiju, natural Sky chakra sounded more to be his type.

"I will go with the Sky energy. So when are we starting the training." Naruto was up and he had a determined and excited look on his face.

"**How about we start right away, seeing that you are ready."** Raiju suggested.

"Ah. Also Raiju-san. Can you change the form of Kiba to something like this?" Naruto showed an image from his mind.

"**I can but why do you want your swords to be like this?"** Raiju asked.

"I read the scrolls mom gave me and I learned about the parent style of 'Twin moon' style. But it is so complicated and even the swords have to particularly designed." Naruto whined.

"**I will do what I can. For now let's concentrate on the matter in our hand, shall we?"** Raiju smirked.

Naruto was out of his mindscape, Raiju told him to go to an open and high ground. He knew where to go but before leaving the mansion, he made few clones and ordered them to read the fuinjutsu scrolls.

"_Watch me, mom, dad. I will surpass both of you and make you proud."_

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XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

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**Two Weeks Later**

Only ten days left till the exam.

For the past two weeks, Naruto had been training vigorously in Sage arts from morning till evening. At night he would either go to the mansion or back to his house. If he went to the mansion, Hinata would tag along and both would go through rasengan training. They both successfully completed the first stage but during the second stage, Hinata quitted and started to learn something new. She explained to Naruto that her chakra was not strong enough yet to go through the second stage, she could make the rubber ball tear up badly but could not burst it. And only after trying two to three times her hand would go numb for few hours or more.

But Hinata started to help Naruto in the third stage of rasengan training after he finished the second stage. Naruto wasn't sure if he could complete the Rasengan before the final but he was determined to do so. And if Naruto went back to his house, he would practice Shunshin; he had the basics down but it was still not perfect. Naruto also gave the Shunshin scroll to Hinata who was still in mid-way of learning it. Also he learned the basics of fuinjutsu but he halted his training for the exam. He knew that he couldn't cover _everything_ in only few weeks.

For Hinata, Rasengan training and Shunshin training came second as her first priority was improving her taijutsu and controlling the chakra needles. Also she came up with three new moves and she was training hard to master them. In her heart, she knew that if she could perfect those three techniques, she could defeat the Kumo Nin.

Now here she was, waiting for Gai which was weird as he was never late. The reason was cleared when she saw Gai coming with one more person.

"Neji nii-san." Hinata gasped.

When Neji and Gai came in front of her, Neji stepped forward.

"How are you doing, Hinata-sama." Neji said but unlike before there were no venom in his words.

"I am fine but how about you? I didn't know you were going to be released today." Hinata asked.

"I was released few days ago but you were busy training so I told Hiashi-sama not to inform you." Neji replied.

"Ahh," It was easy to notice the sadness in Hinata's voice, but Neji immediately followed up,

"Because I needed some time alone to sort out few things. And after talking to few person I came to a conclusion." Neji took a deep breath.

"Hinata-sama, all this time you were right, about me, about _our_ clan and about fate. But this world is cruel and you can't deny that. Lip-service means nothing if you don't have the power and strength to back you up. Your words are honest and they come from your pure heart, I will admit that." Neji looked at Gai who nodded.

"Hinata-sama, I challenge you to a duel." Neji calmly declared.

Hinata was stunned as she involuntarily took some steps back.

"Please, don't mistake my intentions, it is not for grudge or to belittle you. I want you to show me, that you have the strength and courage to back your words up. I know, no, everyone knows that you are kind and many people will take advantage of it, just like how I used to do. So I want you to show me, that you have the determination and power to achieve what you believe." Neji slowly took a loose battle stance.

"Accept it, Hinata-chan." Hinata was surprised hearing that voice and she looked around to see Naruto running toward them.

"You can do it, I believe in you." Just those few words were what Hinata needed to hear, from her precious person.

"Hinata-san, you are not fighting as a Hyuuga main branch here, you are fighting as a warrior. Give it your all and show us your flames of youth." Gai softly encouraged Hinata.

Hinata took a deep breath and calmed herself. She wasn't scared like how she used to be but she did get a shock as all these happened so suddenly.

"Neji nii-san, I won't fight as a spar." Hinata took her fighting stance. "I will fight to win. If I can't beat you then how I can beat that Kumo Nin. There is too much at stake for me to lose here and in the Final." Neji smiled ever so slightly hearing Hinata's determined words. He also strengthened his stance.

Gai and Naruto leaped back. Gai looked at both of them,

"Begin!"

"Byakugan!" Both Hinata and Neji shouted in unison but instead of charging in they started to carefully analyze their opponent.

Neji saw that Hinata's stance was different but yet somehow similar to normal gentle fist style. He didn't wait long as he charged toward Hinata.

Hinata dodged Neji's outstretched palm and she also managed to dodge the follow up attacks on her chakra points. She was agile and fast for a Hyuuga but still Neji scowled, it was not because he couldn't hit but because Hinata was not hitting back.

Neji moved back a bit and returned back with a fast palm strike. But it was countered by Hinata's knee which hit his wrist. Neji winced but proceeded to block the oncoming strike to his chakra points at his shoulder but to his surprise, Hinata at the last moment closed her fingers and made a fist, she crouched down a bit, retreated her fist by a small margin and hit Neji's armpit.

Neji tried to jump back but was faced with a kick to his thigh. He managed to get away but staggered when he landed. He checked his wounds with his Byakugan and what he discovered shocked him.

"Amazing, Hinata-sama. You were able to shut down chakra point using your feet." Neji said as he rubbed his sore wrist and leg.

"It is still far from perfection. I wasn't able to fully close the chakra points." Hinata answered and Neji understood, she couldn't shut down the chakra points, more like she struck the chakra points. But nevertheless, it was painful.

Feeling slightly recovered from the previous strikes, Neji charged again but this time he met with Hinata in the mid-way. While Hinata dodged Neji's outstretched palm but Neji countered Hinata's. Hinata winced and fell back but Neji continued his onslaught. Neji struck a few more times before Hinata closed in and kneed the side of his thigh. To his shock, his stance faltered.

Hinata was too close for Neji to hit her with gentle fist strikes. Neji tried to back away but Hinata stepped on his foot, and the result was Neji's stance falling. Hinata immediately went to strike Neji's chakra point but to her surprise, Neji started to rotate and a chakra shield was formed that pushed Hinata away.

"Neji nii-san; that was Eight Trigrams: Palm Rotation." Hinata was stunned.

"It is still not perfect, Hinata-sama. I wished to complete it during this month but guess I will have to postpone it." Neji replied between his breaths.

"But I never thought that you would aim for pressure points, joints and muscles besides chakra points. That's ingenious." For the first time Neji smiled.

"Our eyes can see more than just chakra points, Neji nii-san. And I tend to fully utilize it." Hinata smiled back.

"Unfortunately, the battle is coming to an end. You are within my field of division." Neji retook his stance and his eyes were sharp.

Hinata gasped but immediately she took a stance of her own.

"_Please let it be strong enough." _

"Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms."

"Protecting Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms."

The vicious attack and the tenacious defense met head on. Neji's palm strikes, laced with his chakra made direct contact with a steam of chakra released from Hinata's palm. The collision was so strong that it was as if the whole place was shaking.

Neji's arm was getting more injuries and cuts as more strikes he was making, but he was called prodigy for nothing. He saw that as the time was passing by, Hinata's defense was faltering. It was not as if she couldn't keep up with him. It was her _jutsu_ that wasn't able match the speed of his jutsu.

Out of sixty four strikes Hinata was able to block around fifty strikes. Hinata and Neji jumped back the moment their jutsu ended.

"_I never knew Hinata-sama would come up with something as fearsome as this."_ Neji looked at his injured arms, _"And I just had gotten my arms healed." _

"_Neji nii-san's jutsu is faster, I took too many strikes, my body is going numb. I can't prolong this fight any longer."_ Hinata thought as she stood up with difficulty.

Neji saw that Hinata wasn't ready and he took the chance, he dashed toward Hinata.

The moment Hinata saw Neji charging at her, she took our some shuriken and threw at him, Neji grabbed them and taking out his own shuriken he threw them back.

But Hinata wasn't sitting idly, she went through hand-seals right after throwing her shuriken.

"Water release: Gatling gun." Lots of water shots came out from Hinata's mouth and with deadly accuracy they hit all the shuriken but the scarier part was that the water shots didn't stop there. Merging with the shuriken and without losing speed the water shots headed toward Neji.

"_She is buying time."_ Neji smirked. He jumped toward the deadly jutsu and without missing a bit he performed his incomplete 'Palm Rotation' to change the trajectory of the water bullets. The moment his feet landed on the ground, he rushed to Hinata.

Hinata saw Neji coming and she knew she didn't have the speed to dodge his attacks any more, she gathered her remaining chakra.

"Eight Trigrams Heavenly Vacuum Palm." Hinata shouted.

Neji was hit with, what seemed to be, a compressed "_spiral_ vacuum shell" right at his chest but he could feel the attack was not complete but it still hurt a lot. Neji fell back and he could feel his whole body shaking.

Hinata also fell down as she tried to steady her breathing.

"Match is over." Gai shouted.

Both Hinata and Neji looked surprised but Gai raised his hand.

"As much as I wish to you see a fitting end to the duel, it will be unfair for both of you. Neji, you just got out of hospital, you are not hundred percent ready for a match of this caliber and Hinata, you have an exam just after a week. It would be unwise if you would get some serious injuries." Gai patiently elaborated his reasoning.

Hinata and Neji nodded in understanding.

"Guess we have to postpone our duel for later." Hinata smiled but Neji shook his head in denial.

"Hinata-sama, I got my answer." Neji came forward and bowed,

"In the past, you used to look up to me as your big brother and after that incident, you tried to comfort me even though you were hurt yourself, maybe more than me. But I took advantage of your kindness and no matter how many times I apologize, my past shame will still remain. But I am still asking, no begging, if you would give me one more chance to correct my mistake and let me help you. Not as a branch member but as a family." Neji's voice was sincere and full of regret.

Hinata slowly came up to Neji and gently lifted his head.

"I forgive you because you are my family. You know that I never once I treated you as a branch member. No matter what kind of mistakes you make in life, I will be there to help you and I know that you would do the same. Because that is what family does." Hinata smiled with teary eyes.

Neji gave a sincere smile and hugged Hinata.

"But I still want a rematch to see who is stronger amongst us." Hinata giggled as she looked at Neji.

"If that's what you wish but I will not hold back." Neji answered back with a smirk.

Neji went to talk with Gai while Naruto came and bear-hugged Hinata.

"You almost beat his ass, Hinata-chan." Naruto said gleefully.

"He wasn't fully recovered, Naruto-kun." Hinata replied back.

"That is beside the point and also your jutsu were not complete. Those were some super amazing techniques. But the Heavenly Vacuum Palm, is that what I think it is?" Naruto asked teasingly.

"Yes, I tried to recreate one of our clan jutsu by using the basic rasengan theory. The original jutsu is 'Vacuum Palm'. I am trying to add simple rotation to it. " Hinata replied happily.

"That would be one hell of a jutsu if you can master it." Naruto admitted.

They stopped talking when they saw Gai and Neji approaching.

"Hinata-sama, may I make a request? Would you let me help with your training for the final?" Neji bowed his head slightly.

"I won't." Everyone was taken aback, "If you keep bowing at me." Hinata laughed.

"I will work on it." Neji smiled.

"Fine then, after a break, we should start on the training." Gai announced.

"Guess, I will be on my way." Naruto said. Hinata came and kissed him in the cheeks. Naruto smiled back but before leaving he and Neji made an eye-contact.

.

Flashback

The Day Before

_Naruto was heading toward his usual place for Sage training but stopped when he felt a familiar but unwelcomed person approaching him._

"_Is there anything you need?" Naruto narrowed his eyes at Neji._

"_Nice to meet you too. Can I take some of your time?" Neji asked politely, he quickly added, "It's regarding Hinata-sama."_

_Neji was surprised when Naruto immediately closed their gap and was battle ready._

"_I meant no harm, no actually it is the opposite. I want to mend our broken bond." Neji took a deep breath. Naruto moved back a bit but didn't loosen his stance._

"_I know you don't like me but….." Neji was interrupted by,_

"_No Neji, I despise you." Naruto growled. Neji was taken aback._

"_I know you lost your father in a shitty way, your pain is understandable; blaming Fate, I can get it. But why did you belittle and hurt the person who wanted to help you? You lost your father but you had your mom, part of your clan was there beside you sharing the same fucking burden. But what did Hinata have?" Naruto looked at Neji who couldn't answer him back._

"_Hinata's kind mind made her believe that she was the reason her uncle died and after few years later her mother passed away. Her oh-so-great father basically casted her aside and her whole _noble_ clan ignored her existence. She had no one and yet…" This time Naruto was interrupted by Neji, who bowed his head._

"_I know how much she suffered because of me and of her clan. And yet her kindness never wavered and she never blamed anyone, I don't know how she could withstand so much pain and yet smile from her heart. I want to fix that, and I know no matter how much I apologize now, it is not going to be enough. And that is why I want to ask something of you." Neji's voice was strained._

"_And what would that be?" Naruto calmed down. _

"_I want to be by her side for as long as I can and be the big brother that she always wished me to be. I know you will protect her from the cruelty of this world but let me protect where it will be hard for you." Neji raised his head and Naruto could see the honesty and determination in his eyes._

"_But why ask me first?" Naruto questioned._

"_Well I intend to help Hinata in her training and if you would see us in that state, I am pretty sure you would tear my head off first without listening." Neji chuckled._

"_I wouldn't do that in broad daylight." Neji sweat-dropped when Naruto said it as a matter of fact._

"_But I plan to challenge her into a duel, an honest duel to see how far she has come." Naruto checked Neji's eyes to see if he had ulterior motives. He found none._

"_Fine by me." Naruto resumed his walking but stopped just after few steps._

"_A simple warning; you break her heart, I make you disappear." _

Flashback Ends

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If it wasn't for his Hyuuga training, Neji would have gulped when he saw the look on Naruto's face.

"Neji nii-san, are you alright?" Hinata asked.

"I am fine, I was just thinking, you have a really caring boyfriend." Neji replied with a dry tone.

Hinata giggled softly with a small blush.

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After the Break

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"So, right now you have around ten days before the final. I would suggest to master the jutsu and techniques that you know instead of trying to learn new ones." Gai suggested.

"I would say the same. Your new two gentle fist techniques need some work, Hinata-sama. Maybe I can help you to master them." Neji gave his thought.

Hinata nodded positively.

"I guess so. But before that can you tell me about Kumo guy?" Hinata asked.

Neji's face darkened a bit, but he took a deep breath to calm himself down.

"He is strong. His strikes are destructive and against gentle fist strike, they are quite effective. While gentle fist targets chakra points, his style targets bones and muscles. And the problem is his lightning armor, while it is not overly strong, it gives him enough defense to protect his chakra point from gentle fist strikes. And if you hit his armor too much, your arm will get numb. I am guessing it is the lightning element's side effect." Neji explained.

"In a simpler way, it is like a clash between hammer and a needle. A hammer can easily break the needle whether the hammer takes an offensive stance or defensive stance." Gai simplified Neji's theory, "But you have a plan to top that, right, my youthful student." Gai gave his signature smile.

Neji was surprised to hear that Hinata already had an idea against him.

"I have more than _one_ plan against him. But those plans are still perfect yet." Hinata smiled shyly.

"That's what we are here for." Gai laughed, Neji smirked as well.

"Thank you."

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With Naruto

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Naruto was at his favorite place.

On top of the Hokage monument.

He had been practicing the senjutsu style there. Raiju put up a barrier so no other shinobi could sense his presence while he was there. Of course he would leave a Dense Shadow Clone outside, so people didn't think he was missing.

Naruto laid down.

"Man, I just can't hold onto the natural energy no matter what I do." Naruto sighed tiredly.

"**It's because you are too young and that is why your body will need some time to get adapt to the Senjutsu chakra.** **But honestly you are faring lot better than I thought."** Raiju voiced his opinion.

"Honestly, I already got an idea about how to use Senjutsu chakra like this." Naruto smirked.

"**Really and how is that?"** Raiju raised his eyebrow as Naruto's idea was anything but simple and mainstream.

After Naruto explained his great plan, Raiju didn't know what to do. Would he laugh or scold Naruto for such a reckless idea, he just went with the neutral path,

"**Do you think, you can honestly pull this off?"** Raiju asked for confirmation.

"I won't know unless I try." Naruto got up.

"**Fair enough." **Raiju paused,** "You want to ask me something. Don't you?" **

"You caught me." Naruto smiled softly.

"Raiju-san, is it possible for me to gain another audience to meet Lord Raijin?" Naruto asked sincerely.

"**Why do you want to meet him?"** Raiju inquired carefully.

"Only a god should know how to bargain with other god, right?" Naruto said with a resolute voice.

"**And your point is?"** Raiju still couldn't see where Naruto was going.

"I want to free my father's soul, from the Shinigami."

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**Done.**

**So what do you guys think about my Sage theory. I want to explore more on Senjutsu, leave your review about it as they always help.**

**Also, next chapter is the chunin exam.**

**Till next time.**


	29. Chapter 29 : Fire vs Ice

**Hello everyone, it's been a while. I think this is the longest break I took from uploading the story. And here I thought my real life wouldn't get any worse, boy was I wrong!**

**Anyway, about the reviews, I think I got my first official flaming. **

**I will humor that person anyway,**

**First, I said it in the summary, Strong Naruto, not god-like. Why the bloody hell anyone would try to compare him to Itachi, Kakashi or Kisame at the time being? Current Naruto is good but only compare to his age group.**

**Second, when did I ever show that Naruto sucked at genjutsu or taijutsu? What I meant when I say he wouldn't focus on those area much that he wouldn't be as good as Neji or Hinata in taijutsu and his genjutsu won't be as good as his kenjutsu or ninjutsu. **

**And I seriously not gonna talk about the senjutsu part, this is my theory about the senjutsu and I will elaborate it more as the story progresses.**

**One more thing,**

**I SUCK at writing hardcore bashing so I hope none of you expect anything like that. I tried and it didn't work so I will settle with mild bashing.**

**Also, Lerris: You are the first one I think to say I am trying to overpower Naruto. Maybe a bit but only when compare to people around his age, you can't compare him to Jonin yet.**

**zulqar95: Thank you for liking the story. Hope you keep enjoying it.**

**Thanks to all the people that reviewed, if you have some questions I don't mind talking though pm but please be open-minded when that time comes.**

**.**

**.**

***** Also I am sorry for updating late as I was trying out a crossover, I will upload the first chapter right after this one, it would be helpful if you check it out and leave a **_**constructive**_** comment. I would really appreciate it. ***** **

_**Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto.**_

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The day had finally come.

Konoha was booming with activities as people from different countries and villages had gathered.

It was the Chunin Final after all, and it could be considered as a festival for shinobi village.

The arena was filling up with people. Civilians, young and retired shinobi took the most places in arena; Konoha clans had their own personal space while noble clans and families sat together.

And for the Kage, they had their own place to sit.

Hokage and Kazekage met there and exchanged small pleasantries.

For the participants, they had their personal area which was closest to the arena. So they could observe the battles but their Jonin sensei was at different place.

All the contestants were there already, yes even Sasuke was there considering who was training him but the Third made sure that he would be there on time as he was going on the first match and it would look really bad in front of the nobles and potential clients if they had to postpone the first match because of _someone's_ tardiness.

Sasuke was wearing a light grey short-sleeved shirt with a high collar and the Uchiha crest on the back and his left arm was adorning many small arm-belts. He had dark blue pants which stopped right before his ankle. He had a scroll, tightly secured in his left leg.

Haku was wearing a full body grey cloak and it was harder to just even see her face. Sasuke tried to talk to her but she would just move away. After Naruto started snickering at this, Sasuke stopped trying.

Speaking of Naruto, he was wearing a black tracksuit with orange lining and orange stripes along with black pants. While his jacket was long reaching below the waistline, the arms of the jacket was cut off at his elbow. He was wearing the jacket open and beneath his jacket he had a grey t-shirt which had a huge Uzumaki symbol in the middle. His both arms were covered with white bandages from elbow below.

He was chatting with Hinata at the back while checking out his competition.

And as for Hinata, The only noticeable change of her was that her hair now reached below her shoulder blade.

The whole place was divided by three groups; genins from Konoha, Suna and Kumo were staying together while maintaining their distance from other groups.

Hayate nodded when he saw Hokage signaling to start the matches. Hayate looked at the clipboard he was holding and his eyebrows rose. He looked at the participants' stand.

"First round, Haku _Yuki_ versus Sasuke Uchiha. Contestants please come down to the arena." Hayate announced with a smirk as the entire stadium became deathly quiet.

One minute; and immediately after that, the whole place was buzzing with whispers of awe and disbelief.

Sasuke chuckled to himself.

"_Guess that means she will be going all out."_

With that thought he went toward the arena with Haku following him.

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In the Kage booth

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"Wow, so that girl is from Yuki clan? Isn't she far away from home?" 'Kazekage' said with pure glee in his voice.

"Long story, Kazekage-sama. But, right now, Konoha is her home." Hokage replied back with a smile.

"So will she start her clan here?" 'Kazekage' asked, but his voice still held the excitement.

"If she wants then yes." Hokage laughed.

Orochimaru smirked under his veil_, "I wonder if I can mark her as well, the last of Yuki and the last of Uchiha, guess this will be one interesting tournament."_

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Back at the Arena

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"Are both of you ready?" Hayate looked at the contestants.

Haku immediately pulled off her robe.

Sasuke looked at her like a gaping fish.

Kakashi turned his head to see a smirking Yamato and groaned.

Naruto whistled.

Haku was wearing her old Anbu mask but instead of water village symbol it had leaf village one. She was also wearing what could be considered as a battle kimono. It was a blue colored light kimono, which consisted of a short sleeveless tunic decorated by many ice flakes, held closed by a large dark obi which had a thin navy colored rope tied around it and sported a medium sized scroll on the back. She had a light chainmail under it as it could be seen through the tunic. Although her kimono ended at a bit above her thigh, she was wearing long stockings. But the weird part of that particular clothing was that she was wearing detached sleeves which were covering her full arms from below elbow.

"Well then," Hayate coughed, "Let the match begin."

Haku immediately dashed toward Sasuke who only had the time to activate his sharingan and to jump back, but to his surprise Haku closed the gap between them as if she was expecting his move.

Seeing no way out, Sasuke engaged her knowing full well that she would be drawing the first blood and she did but the worst was he didn't see it coming.

Haku's fighting style changed by a huge margin, because of her arms being covered by her sleeves and her being too close, Sasuke couldn't predict her movement but he still were able to hold out for some time through sheer instinct. Haku went for a chop at Sasuke's face who, although backed up his head, got hit by her sleeve and to his surprise it felt like he was hit by steel.

"_Her sleeves are chakra enforced!"_ Sasuke thought as he sucked the blood on his now bruised lips.

He jumped back and when he saw Haku jumping after him, he immediately stretched his left arm with an open palm. Under the palm there was a seal which glowed and a bo staff emerged from there that was aimed at Haku's stomach. But she maneuvered herself at the midair so the staff missed her by an inch and using that momentum she kicked the staff to jump back.

"_Sealing scroll."_ Haku clicked her tongue, "Never thought of you as a staff user." Haku said as she tried to analyze Sasuke's stance, _"He can't be that good with that staff in a month but then again he is an Uchiha."_

"I know but somehow it just clicked." Sasuke said in a laid back manner as he stood lazily with his staff, _"Sorry girl, but you ain't getting anymore dirt on me."_

Haku smirked and she went through handsigns real fast and this time Sasuke tsked as her sleeves once again denied him off seeing her moves. But he didn't have to wait long as the area started to get thick with mist as it surrounded Sasuke.

"Let's see how far have you come, little Uchiha." Haku whispered provokingly as her voice echoed in the mist.

Sasuke didn't say anything as he knew exactly what he had to do.

He played this scenario in his head over hundred times.

Sasuke threw his scroll hard, above his head which exploded after few seconds and showered the place with Kunai, he knew Haku would be distracted for few seconds and he seized the chance,

"Earth Release: Hiding Like a Mole Technique."

He wasn't quite good at using this yet but he knew it would get the job done. The kunai that were placed throughout the mist were not normal as those had his chakra infused with them. Those would act as radar for him as they would catch any vibrations near them and would send Sasuke a signal.

"_No matter how good you are, you have to walk on the ground." _Sasuke smirked.

And he got the signal but he waited for the perfect timing as there was one more type of kunai his scroll consisted.

The explosive ones.

When he felt that Haku was near few explosive kunai, he sent the signal.

Haku knew something was wrong when the scroll exploded and kunai came raining down, the aiming was too random. And before she knew it, she couldn't pinpoint Sasuke. So she treaded carefully.

Years of training under Zabuza paid off as her instincts screamed at her suddenly. She took a big leap just in time to avoid a huge explosion but she didn't get out of it unscathed.

"_Something is not right, there is no way he could pinpoint my location like that."_ Haku thought hysterically and she did the best and fast way to fix the problem.

She cancelled the mist.

To her surprise, Sasuke was right where she saw him. She narrowed her eyes at the smirking Uchiha.

"Is that all you got, snow _princess_." Sasuke taunted, _"Good thing, I got out from the ground immediately, have to keep that a secret for as long as I can."_

Haku just smiled behind her mask and shook her head. Before Sasuke could even know what was happening, this time Haku threw her scroll which released,

Water.

Sasuke's eyes widened as he knew something bad was gonna happen but before he could come up with a plan, all Haku did was made _one_ handsign.

"Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals."

And he cursed himself as he was surrounded by ice mirrors, and he knew this jutsu well, too well. But unlike last time, mirrors this time were clear as if they were made of pure crystal.

"Ah shit."

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Outside the Arena

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"Crap." Kakashi swore, he knew Sasuke might have pulled something _if_ Haku used the jutsu _later_.

Yamato smiled but couldn't help but worry as he knew Kakashi would have taught Sasuke something to use against this jutsu. Although Haku improved the jutsu by a huge margin, Yamato just couldn't help but feel uneasy for some reason.

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In the Kage booth

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"That girl is quite well-versed with ice techniques." Kazekage said as his eyes never leaving the arena.

"Yes, she is one of the best genins we have this year." Hokage smiled.

"First I thought the last Uchiha was going to win but I am not so sure now, who do you think will win this fight, Hokage-sama?" Kazekage asked.

"The Last Uchiha or the Ice Princess, hmm, really a hard question." Hokage mused.

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Back at the arena

.

Sasuke was dodging and sometimes countering the incoming needles with his staff. He had to admit that the jutsu was scarier than before.

Even though the mirrors are clean and clear, unlike before, Haku wasn't visible when the needles came out from the mirrors. And also he would see Haku moving through mirrors but it was a distraction. Whenever Haku made her moves which would be close to Sasuke and who in turn involuntarily would look at her only to know through his sharingan that needles were coming from different angles.

He enhanced his staff and himself with earth chakra, so he was able to crush the needles easily but it was draining his chakra and from the look of it, it seemed Haku wasn't getting tired at all.

"_That damn water must have been laced with her chakra." _Sasuke thought as he crushed few more needles.

It was true, the water that was released from the scroll was pure and had her chakra so it gave her more than enough to perform the jutsu. Also the water moistened the atmosphere and softened the ground which would make it easier for her to do ice jutsu later in the fight.

Sasuke was hoping for her to bring out the big guns later as he wanted to exhaust her stamina as well as show his second element later but seeing that he was receiving too many hits.

"_No choice then." _With that thought Sasuke started to spin his staff above his head with one hand and began concentrating for a moment.

Haku knew something was coming and unlike Sasuke, she wasn't eager to see what it was.

Immediately from all the mirrors, ice needles came at him with extreme speed.

Sasuke stopped spinning the staff and slammed it into the ground.

"Earth Release: Subterranean Voyage."

It was a jutsu that allows the user to close in on enemy with high speed through underground. It was an offensive jutsu but Sasuke used it differently.

Instead of closing in on Haku, he used the underground and the speed that came with the jutsu to _get out_ of Haku's ice prison. He emerged from the underground when he got a good distant from her and her mirrors.

The mirror dome opened up and Haku came out.

"Your second affinity is Earth release." Haku said in an thoughtful tone, as she was able to figure out how Sasuke pulled off his trick inside her mist and how he was able to withstand inside her ice dome for so long.

"I wanted to keep it under the radar for a bit longer but guess you just know how to make me go all out without me even knowing." Sasuke said with a smirk as he once again took a lazy stance.

The manner of his speech and fighting style were completely different and no one knew what made him act not-Sasuke like. The thing was, even Sasuke didn't think he could pull this _act of_.

Haku had the advantage before the battle even began, so he had to improvise. He thought hard and fast at how to catch Haku off-guard and the answer came to him like a thunderbolt.

Haku was expecting to fight an analytical, quick-witted and calm minded Sasuke so instead of giving her that kind of opponent he gave someone different. He imitated the first person that came to his mind who was opposite of him and tried to mimic his speech pattern and behavior.

He could see Haku's confusion even though she was wearing her mask.

"Damn girl, I wanna say chill out but you are cold enough as it is. You are fighting like a desperate fangirl chasing after a hot guy's ass." He then took a look at himself, "Maybe you do."

"_Too much?"_ Sasuke thought as he leaned onto his staff but stopped smirking as the temperature dropped quite a few degrees.

"Oh, I do want a piece of that fine ass." Haku said so sweetly that Sasuke felt a shiver going down his spine.

Haku snapped her finger and immediately all the mirrors surrounding her broke as the pieces of those frozen shard started to combine. Haku went through some handsigns fast but Sasuke was quicker.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique." The fire was bigger and had more power behind it but before it hit Haku, to Sasuke's surprise, an icy hand pierced through the fire, completely dissolving it, and came at him super-fast.

"Ice Release: Frozen demon Arm."

Sasuke slammed the staff into the ground and wanted to use the 'Subterranean Voyage' to avoid the attack and at the same time was hoping to close in on Haku to get the jump on her.

His plans all went down the drain as the hand caught him before he could completely submerge underground and pulled him out with ease.

Sasuke eyes met Haku and he was surprised to see Haku had taken off the mask and was having a huge shit-eating grin.

Sasuke didn't like that grin, not one bit.

But before he could do anything to get out of that position the hand started to slam Sasuke on the ground, repeatedly.

The whole crowd kept wincing each time Sasuke hit the ground.

But to everyone's surprise, Sasuke's staff was broken into two pieces and he used those parts to strike at the wrist of the frozen arm in a crisscross manner.

The hand was broken and he used the momentum to jump and gain some distance from Haku.

"Aww, I wasn't finished punishing the bad boy. You need more spanking." Haku cooed and she went through handsigns fast one more time.

"Ice release: Frozen Masamune." The ice around her formed into a fine and detailed looking katana.

She charged immediately all the while having that smirk filled with ecstasy.

Sasuke tried to defend but getting manhandled like that took a lot out of him and he didn't even have the chance to catch his breaths.

Sasuke was helpless against the Haku's aggressive attacks; he was using his staff pieces as bokken to block any kind of incoming physical attack.

Sasuke let go off one of his staff pieces, Haku thought that it was because of his fatigue and cause of that she didn't see the next attack coming.

The staff piece that he let go latched itself to the other piece like steel getting attracted by a strong magnet. Sasuke used the pause in Haku's attack to strike hard at the said girl's wrist which was holding the katana and when she let go of it, he spun, while holding the staff with both of his hands, and struck the katana which flew and got stuck into the far arena wall.

Sasuke didn't stop there as he used the momentum to spun again and hit Haku on her arm.

Haku used the power of Sasuke's attack to spin herself and kicked Sasuke hard on the head.

Sasuke saw that coming but he wasn't able to stop it but tilted his head at the last second to minimize the damage.

Using Sasuke's momentary pause, she flipped back while kicking on Sasuke's hands hard. Sasuke's hands let go of the staff involuntarily and to everyone's surprise Haku caught the staff with her feet while she was still on the air and instead of landing on her feet, she used her arms to land and her feet to throw the staff far away.

When she landed on her feet, she once again pressed on her attacks.

From audiences' perspective Sasuke was going to lose but the Jonins knew better. Though only Sasuke seemed to be winded and battered up, Haku was also getting short on breath. Continuous heavy assault like this while not stopping after getting hit was no joke but Haku was able to pull it off because she was using her adrenaline rush to keep on going. But the proctors and the experienced shinobi knew that if Haku would stop to take a breath, even for a second, she wouldn't be able to go on to the aggressive side again.

Sasuke was pissed but not at his current predicament as he got an idea of how to get out of it. He was pissed at _the idea_, it seemed that because he was imitating _that_ idiot the idea that he got was also like him.

Ridiculous, unpredictable and downright degrading idea,

He got a jab on his shoulder,

But he was an Uchiha,

He received a punch to his jaw,

He wouldn't stoop so low to ….

He got a low kick on his knee.

"_Fuck this shit." _

Sasuke jumped on Haku and started to thrash randomly, Haku pause for a just a second to give Sasuke the chance.

He threw an open palm attack and immediately closed the distance.

From far it seemed that Sasuke hit on Haku's heart while closing the distance he was trying to immobilize the girl.

But the truth was different.

Sasuke knew after receiving so many hits, his arms were feeling numb so his attacks wouldn't have as much power as he wanted.

So, Sasuke didn't struck Haku with an open palm, he grabbed her breast and Haku didn't stop moving because of pain but of the sheer audacity and stupidity of the move. And he didn't stop there as Sasuke squeezed his prize for all it's worth.

Haku couldn't help but blush and her body, unwillingly, relaxed. She was horrified when she felt most of her strength leaving her.

Sasuke came close and whispered huskily,

"Damn! You are packing quite the babies and," He shot his other hand and grabbed her ass and also gave it a squeeze, "Would you look at that, both of them fits in my hand perfectly, coincidence?"

Haku's embarrassment didn't take long to subside as it was replaced with pure unfiltered anger. She gritted her teeth, snarled at him and went to beat him to the point where he would have wished that he was dead with his clan.

But Sasuke took action the moment he saw the shift in her emotion.

His hand that was touching her ass, shot to grab her thigh and pulled it up while the hand that was on her breast was now just below her neck and he used this momentum to push Haku down with tremendous force.

Haku wasn't ready for anything like and in a fit of rage she couldn't come up with any proper counter. Her head hit the ground with such force that for a moment her world went white. It didn't end there as her head bounced back up only to meet with Sasuke's fierce head-butt and her head once again collided with the ground badly.

Before losing consciousness, she smiled when she saw the look on Sasuke's face.

Haku delivered her judgment sooner than Sasuke thought.

While falling, Haku pulled her free leg and bended it so her knee was pointing at_ something_.

At Sasuke's precious.

Sasuke was no stranger to physical pain but he never felt something of this caliber. When he slammed Haku onto the ground for a second he felt his world froze. The head-butt he gave was his body moving on the motion not by his choice, his thought process screeched to a halt when he knew what the problem was.

His eyes were bulging out while his open mouth just released a silent scream. And then he scrunched his face as he fell on top of Haku.

His fingers were digging on his fists as they wanted to touch and soothe his family jewel but he would rather die than to do it in front of the audience while he was on top her.

When he felt Haku's unconscious body relaxed he moved to the side and lied there on his back.

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Outside of the Arena

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Everyone was speechless.

One moment the contestants were in an amazing taijutsu fight and suddenly Sasuke struck Haku and grabbed her in an immobilizing manner. Few seconds passed as there was no motion in any of them and all of sudden Sasuke pushed Haku down to the ground with such force that she lost consciousness the moment she hit her head on the ground. And instead of Sasuke getting up to announce his victory, he lied down beside her, groaning.

But the proctors, Jonins and two Kage knew what transpired on the arena.

Kurenai glared at Kakashi, thinking it was his fault.

Asuma didn't know what to do while Gai was shaking his head disapprovingly.

Yamato just looked at Kakashi with pity and sadness.

"What's with that look?" Kakashi asked as he could say the reason behind Kurenai's death glare but Yamato's emotion caught him off-guard.

"Senpai, you know that if Haku tells _her father_ about this Sasuke is going to lose his head and being the bloodthirsty person he is, he won't be happy with just that and will probably put his focus on you." Yamato said in dejected voice.

The only sound at that area could be heard was Kakashi's book hitting the floor.

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Back at the Arena

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"So kid, wanna get up so I can declare you the winner or are you going to lie down there and I call this a draw?" Hayate said with a smirk.

Sasuke groaned and cursed, he wanted to get up but he knew that if he tried it was going to hurt like hell.

"We both know that I don't deserve the victory." Sasuke grumbled.

"This is a shinobi fight kid, here you play dirty to win and live. What you did, in real world might save you and your friends lives." Hayate chuckled.

"Ya and I wanna live long, what do you think she will do if she hears I won the fight? Hmm? And also I am in condition to fight the second round although I want to win this match and forfeit the next one, considering my future I think the first option is better." Sasuke said with a sigh.

"Wow, I didn't think it that way. You are throwing away your victory so your punishment lessens. Brilliant!" Hayate beamed up.

"What punishment? She almost crushed my balls and I threw the match because I don't want to get a victory like this. Isn't it enough?" Sasuke said with a panic.

"Kids, we male ninja are afraid of normal women when they are angry and this is a kuniochi." Hayate said with an expression that made Sasuke shuddered badly.

"The match is a draw." Hayate moved away and declared the result and then he motioned for the medics to come and pick them up.

"If you ask me, not many people get to feel up such a beauty." Hayate said as he looked at Sasuke and added, "I think it is a win-win situation for you, _for now_."

All Sasuke could do was to curse himself for ever thinking of imitating Naruto.

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**Done.**

**Guys I know a few of you don't like Sasuke but please remember this will be one of those fanfic where Sasuke is a good guy. So please be flexible about it.**

**Till next time.**


	30. Chapter 30 : Acceptance

**Hello everyone. Thanks to all the people that reviewed, if you have some questions I don't mind talking though pm but please be open-minded when that time comes.**

**Also I want confirm one thing that Sasuke WILL have something similar to chidori, in some cases it can be consider more powerful and some cases not. You have to wait till the next arc to fully see what the technique is.**

**One more thing is that I will start fixing my chapters soon after the end of my semester which is few weeks away. So I won't be updating anymore before my exam finishes. **

_**Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto.**_

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Darui and his partner were the only ones in the lounge which was made for outside shinobi. The only people who had access to this place were the Jonin instructor or trainer of the foreign qualified teams. But the Sand team's instructor didn't come as he was near the Kage booth along with some other Sand shinobi. He pointed out that it was for formalities.

Darui looked at his partner. He stood out more than him because of his largely muscular body and tanned skin. He was watching D entering the arena field leisurely with a smirk. Seeing that Darui sighed, he knew D was powerful but his ego was the thing that worried him. Darui massaged his temple thinking how he would follow the Raikage's order.

"_I will have to make sure that the kid has the power. Hopefully the mercenaries I hired would be able to provide some backup."_ Darui sighed one more time. He knew he could rely on his partner as he was no pushover but abducting a kid with a rare bloodline was no joke. If it was a minor village then it wouldn't be a problem but from Konoha and after everything that had happened, _"Why Konoha?"_ Darui groaned inwardly.

"So what's the plan, Darui?"

"We wait."

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XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

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**Participants' Area**

"Did Shikamaru have to forfeit?" Naruto was annoyed.

After Sasuke and Haku's match, Shikamaru and Temari went. The battle was of wits and strategies and at the end Shikamaru won because he used the earth holes left by Sasuke to increase his shadow range. The battle was quite interesting but the end result was not what they predicted.

Shikamaru forfeited and thus Temari won the match. But she didn't look happy at all, not one bit.

Now it was Hinata's turn. Her opponent D just walked past her without acknowledging her which made Naruto to almost lash out at him if not for Hinata.

"Calm down Naruto-kun. His pride would be his downfall." Hinata cupped Naruto's face who was still grumbling and looked straight into his eyes, "I will win and that I promise you."

Naruto took a calming breath after hearing her voice full of determination and promise. He took out a scroll and gave it to Hinata whose face lit up when she saw the writings in the scroll.

"You better." He kissed her on her forehead.

She smiled back and went down to the arena.

"I don't think your girl can keep her promise." Yugito smirked but her face paled when she looked at Naruto's eyes. It was less than a second but she saw something different but before she could pinpoint what was the difference Naruto looked away.

"She can." He said softly, just to himself.

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At the Arena

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Hinata came down to see D waiting and looking at anywhere but her. Hinata didn't let it get to her as she went to Hayate. She took off her jacket revealing that she was wearing a t-shirt with lighter lavender color. She had a chainmail underneath it and also from her elbow down her hand was covered with bandages. Her full feet were covered by bandages as well but her pants concealed where the bandages started from.

She took off her locket and used it to tie her hair up into a small ponytail. She gave the jacket to Hayate and nodded to him.

"Participants, get ready." Hinata took her stance while D just yawned, pissing off lots of people in the stadium.

"Begin."

"Lightning release: Lightning dragon's hide."

D immediately activated his lightning armor and expected Hinata to jump back or to throw some jutsu at him but what he didn't expect for her to rush to him.

And she was fast.

D gave a straight and hard right hand punch but Hinata at the last minute spun to move away and immediately she grabbed his outstretched arm with her left hand. Using this momentum she planted her left leg on his right knee to push herself high enough for her to grab his hair with her right hand to knee him in the neck.

D eyes' widened like dinner plates as he didn't expected this at all. He coughed violently at Hinata's attack but her follow up was stronger.

Hinata used D's faltered stance to jump up. Bringing both her knees to her chest she powered up her legs with chakra and delivered a devastating kick to his head with both of her legs. She landed on her hands and flipped back to land on her feet.

If it was anyone else they would have used this chance to press on but Hinata was one with calm mind so she stopped knowing that it was unwise to push as D was enraged. Turned out to be the right decision as D let out a burst of chakra all around him hoping to catch her and he continued for a bit till he was able to reform his stance.

D's scowl deepened when he was able to steady himself.

"Exactly what you would expect from a Konoha shinobi, a coward right to your core." D took a deep breath to calm himself as lightning around him calmed down as well, "The bandages you are wearing they are lightning resistant, aren't they? Instead of fighting me straight forward with your taijutsu, you are leaning onto cheap tricks." D spat.

Hinata looked at him with a raised eyebrow,

"You are quite the hypocrite, aren't you?"

The stadium became silent. Not because of what Hinata said but how she said it. Her tone was full of pity.

"Excuse me?" D was surprised.

"You are mixing your ninjutsu with your taijutsu and _that_ is ok in your book. I only used some protective equipment and I became a coward?" Hinata sighed.

D was angry and his lightning was showing how angry he was.

"Remember one thing please." Hinata took her stance once again, "I didn't come here to satisfy your ego."

Hinata activated her Byakugan without any handseal or any command. It just simply flared to show Hinata's resolve.

"I came here to defeat you, plain and simple."

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With the Jonins

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"Did our sweet little Hinata just give a trash talk?" Asuma said in an awestruck voice.

Kurenai glared at him but Kakashi chuckled,

"I wouldn't say trash talking as what she said is true." Kakashi was still chuckling and even Gai had a smirk on his face.

"But she came a long way and you can thank Gai for that." Kurenai said proudly.

"Ho ho. Taking another hyuuga student?" Kakashi raised an eyebrow at his rival.

"I just trained her for the exam and to be honest I wouldn't mind having her as my student." Gai's reply shocked everyone.

"Really?" Asuma said and he saw Kurenai was pouting a bit.

"She has Neji's ingenious mind and Lee's youthful spirit. With proper caring she can surpass my students, both of them." Gai gave a smile.

"Wait, where is Yamato?" Asuma asked when he saw that the youngest Jonin amongst them wasn't there.

"He went to check on Haku and I told him to check Sasuke for me as well." Kakashi replied.

"Guys, the match is going to get heated up." Kurenai said as she focused on the match.

So did the rest.

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Back at the Arena

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Hinata was fast but she lacked physical strength. She knew about it and that was her power against D. Her knowledge about herself and D as well as her acceptance toward D's strength. And her training with Gai was paying off as D's fighting style was somewhat similar to Gai except it was wilder with less accuracy. But she knew if she got hit once or twice the match might end.

Hinata dodged the oncoming punch as she dashed back and immediately stepped to the side to evade the next kick. She sighed when she saw that D was blatantly throwing wide attacks which left him open. From a _normal_ Hyuuga's point of view it was perfect chance to strike but she knew D wasn't stupid. Hotheaded, yes; Arrogant, very but stupid, no.

From the audiences' point of view, Hinata was dancing around the battle field. Her movements were precise and elegant and even though she was almost got hit by D, she didn't lose her footing for a second.

D stopped his façade as he went for fast strikes but Hinata was faster.

He tried to punch, elbow, knee, kick and even tried to body tackle her but her size and agility was always saving her. Suddenly an idea hit him as he couldn't stop his smirk. He went close a bit and immediately took a breath.

"Lightning release: Lightning dragon's rampage."

His whole body shot out a dense electric field and while emitting this he charged at Hinata and roared. A huge explosion took place as the ground beneath the fighters cracked.

Everyone was on their feet to see what happened to the 'Princess of Konoha'.

D was grinning cause he knew he felt something was hit by his blast and something did got hit. And it was a log. D's grin fell faster than a second. He looked around to see Hinata was behind him, out of reach but then the real surprise came,

"Flowing Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms." Hinata shouted.

"_It isn't possible. She is far away."_ D thought tensely_, "She must be bluffing."_

But Hinata wasn't.

Hinata's this version of Eight Trigrams was different than normal. How so? Because from afar she would throw her chakra needles to her opponent's chakra point. And she didn't have to stand still as she could dance around the field while throwing the chakra needles. Although it was a bit slow compare to the normal one but it was highly versatile.

D lunged at her in order to lessen the distance but Hinata jumped away. She kept gliding around the arena to keep her distance from D all the while performing her attack. When she was done with her attack she moved further away from D.

D was panting but his face was full of anger and _shame_.

Hinata sighed once more because from her point of view D was destroying his own talent by his raw emotion. The moment before he used his lightning attack his face and his body posture told Hinata that he was going to do something crazy. The sudden gleam in his eyes and the huge smirk in his face gave away the surprise.

Hinata looked as D wobbled a bit and it made her smile but she kept a straight face. _"Whoever told that sixty palm strikes had to be on sixty different chakra points?"_ Hinata thought amusingly. Instead of attacking sixty chakra points, Hinata focused on specific chakra point around D's leg because she knew that her strike might not be able to penetrate D's chakra armor. But by attacking on particular chakra point repeatedly her needles pierced his armor and blocked those chakra points.

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Flashback Starts

"_Gai-sensei, can I ask you something?" Hinata asked. It was their break time from the training._

"_Go ahead my youthful student." Gai replied back enthusiastically._

"_For people like D, are there any weak points?" Hinata asked and when she saw Gai's expression to tell her to elaborate, she did, "People like me are fast but weak to strong attacks. A few devastating blows could make us go down quite fast." And when she saw Gai wanted to retort she added, "I know that with training I can overcome my weaknesses but some weaknesses will stay because we are human after all."_

_Gai stared at Hinata for some time and then his feature softened up,_

"_You are a wise girl Hinata and I firmly believe that one day you can become one of the strongest kuniochi ever." Hinata blushed hearing Gai's praise._

"_And yes people like D who are heavy hitters have one major problem and that is the leg." Seeing Hinata's confused face he chuckled softly._

"_Allow me to elaborate. For heavy hitters, they need a strong base meaning they have to constantly adhere and adjust their feet to the ground. So if you somehow weaken their footing their body wouldn't be able to support their strong attacks." Gai explained._

"_Thanks Gai-sensei as now I got few ideas of how to counter his strength." Hinata beamed at Gai who in return gave his signature smile. _

"_Just have to be subtle about it."_

Flashback Ends

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Hinata was taken aback at the sudden outburst of power coming from D. He was concentrating power on his hand as a result lightning started to thicken on his arms. Hinata saw from her Byakugan that he was preparing some kind of long range elemental attack and because it was lightning based she knew her chances of dodging it was slim.

She took out the scroll Naruto gave her.

"_Are you sure about this Naruto-kun?"_

"_I am sure that the jerk will have some kind of super offensive attack. So give me few days and I will create something to counter it."_

Hinata smiled remembering those words. Outside the scroll there were some marks which had a space in the middle for putting a command. Hinata bit her index finger and when blood came out she wrote a specific word 'Defend' in that free space and slammed the scroll into the ground.

D was done powering up as he put both of his arms before thrusting it toward Hinata and roaring out, "Lightning release: Lightning dragon breath."

The condensed lighting energy that came out from D's arm had a slight dragon look to it as it went toward Hinata in a dangerous speed. Hinata immediately put her chakra onto the scroll.

And 'Boom'.

This explosion was much larger than the previous one as the whole stadium shook. It took some time for the smoke and dust to clear and the first person that was seen was D who was panting hard.

But when the smoke was fully cleared D's face went blank.

In front of Hinata there was a huge metal rod with lots of symbol written there. The rod was burnt indicating that _it_ was the one that took the damage but the explosion was strong enough to catch Hinata who just got winded by it but that's it.

In a fit of rage D rushed toward Hinata arms wide open as if he wanted to crush her. Hinata once again surprised everyone by instead of dodging she used shunshin to get close to D who couldn't react on time. Hinata slid under him and used his speed against him. She elbowed him on his navel. She knew it was a cheap shot but this was a fight amongst shinobi. His hips buckled up and using the momentum Hinata grabbed his neck and directed D's head toward the ground.

D hit the ground head first and slid quite a bit. His whole body was still above the ground while his legs were pointing toward the sky. Hinata didn't let up as she immediately charged up her arms and thrust her both palms at D's chest.

"Eight Trigrams Double Heavenly Vacuum Palm."

D slid another twenty to thirty meters while his head was still underground.

It was a brutal attack and D didn't get up. After a minute or two his body fell down on the ground and his head came up showing that he was out cold.

Everyone's breath hitched as Hayate went to D to check his condition. No one saw his small smile as he stood up and shouted,

"Winner by knockout, Hinata Hyuuga."

The whole stadium exploded with cheers, applause and whistles.

Hinata looked around. She could barely believe it. For last few months she was being accepted by her friends, but this completely overwhelmed her. It was like a dream come true. She could feel tears started to gather around her eyes so she closed them.

She bowed to the Kage stand and then to the stadium. But she didn't leave immediately. She wanted to cherish this moment, to bask in the praise and approval that was pouring down on her. For once instead of being rejected she was feeling _accepted_.And it felt nice for a change.

After few minutes she left the stadium but the moment she entered the corridor her stance faltered but someone caught her. She knew who it was.

"I did it." Hinata said softly as she buried herself deeper into his hug.

"Was there any doubt, Hinata-chan?" Naruto replied in a cheeky voice. He smiled gently at Hinata before picking her up in a bridal style and heading toward the platform.

Hinata didn't protest. She was tired.

From a normal perspective, dodging would be an easy feat but it wasn't. She had to constantly send chakra to her feet and had to keep up her guard both with her eyes and with her senses. After what happened with No.5 she knew that sudden strong flash attacks at close range could momentarily make her invulnerable and against someone like D, it would be more than enough to cost the match.

Also her attack 'Flowing Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms' took more chakra than the normal version but it was worth it. Though the chakra consumption could be cut down but her attack was still far from perfect and that's why it took a huge chunk of her chakra.

But she won and now that's all that mattered.

"Thank you Naruto-kun for believing in me." She whispered sincerely.

"Anything for you, my moon princess." Naruto lowered his head and gently kissed her.

Being approved was truly wonderful.

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XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

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**In the Hyuuga Stand**

Most of the elders, scratch that, all the Hyuuga had their jaws wide open seeing what happened at the match and its outcome including Hiashi.

Before coming to the match, most of them knew that Hinata would lose badly as Neji their prodigy lost to the same opponent. They wanted to see how D could counter 'gentle fist' as most of the elder didn't believe it to be possible.

So they came to witness D's skill but the only thing they saw was him getting hammered.

No one except few was paying much attention when the match started but Hinata's brutal initiation made everyone to snap as they watched the match with hawk-eye.

The elders had a heart attack when Hinata used her own version of Eight Trigrams. For decades Hyuuga was trying to come up with any way to make their signature attack stronger.

And Hinata, the unsuitable heiress of the main branch, achieved that feat in a month. To make 'Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms' from close range to mid-range while not losing the accuracy was close to impossible for the Hyuuga. And her version of Eight Trigrams removed one major flaw that existed in the normal one. Hiashi and his brother tried to remove the weakness when his brother was defeated by Gai because of the said weakness, but failed to do so.

Versatility.

'Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms' was a strong attack but if someone would counter it in the mid-way there was no way to dodge or evade and depending on the counter it might end the match instantly. But Hinata's version was void of that weakness as she could just _dance_ around, striking from far and at the same time dodging any incoming attacks.

It was truly an ingenious skill and it was even more marvelous to watch her perform as it looked like she was performing a ballet.

Hiashi chuckled inwardly when he saw Hanabi was almost jumping up and down for her sister and her voice matched those of the branch members. Even the main branch clapped for Hinata after they got out from their stupor.

Hinata won and the fact that she didn't take a single hit from her opponent only glorified her victory.

Hiashi was proud but at the same time he felt sadness overwhelming his heart. Hinata achieved all these just in one month. No, it was long before. The moment she started to hang around with Naruto she was accomplishing tremendous feats. She built her own reputation, was doing amazing in missions and now surpassing Neji, though indirectly. And she did this without his help. She never asked for a single advice since her graduation, even in the past month. It was as if she believed that her father would not help her in any way.

And it hurt.

But he was proud of his daughter of what she achieved today.

He closed his eyes and savored the moment.

The moment when his daughter was being praised and applauded by so many people.

It was Hinata's moment.

His daughter's moment.

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**Done.**

**Till next time everyone.**


	31. Chapter 31 : LightningStorm vs SandStorm

**Hello everyone. This chapter was done few days ago but for the past few days I was fixing my first few chapters. If I had a time machine I would have gone back and punch my past self….shesh.**

**Hopefully now the old chapters are cleaner and easier to read. I did fix as much grammar and syntax errors as I could. But enough of rambling about my mistakes,**

**A few things to clear up, Hinata didn't learn Rasengan. She just finished the first exercise of Rasengan training fast. She doesn't have the chakra nor the power to finish the next step. But she will learn, a lot later.**

**Thank you everyone for liking the story and thanks SagemodeSasuke for giving so many reviews. Hope you keep liking the story. **

**Also thank you Roxie.88, monksarecrazy, Faradath, acheron725, dnck, Hikari Nova, acw28, Hee-Ho Master, hinataellis, VizeerLord, zigmas, Vallavarayan, Sa06Ev12, Neon and the lost soul, MiseryWolf97, ZyiareHellsing, buterflypuss, SinOfDisaster, FinalKingdomHearts, yuzukikuran476 and last but not least Ryuujin96 for reviewing. Guess almost everyone liked Hinata's battle. Seriously guys thanks for the reviews because it really motivates me to work on the story.**

**Now let's go on to the chapter,**

_**Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto.**_

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Hinata thought back on how she got into this state.

One moment she was leaving the corridor and heading toward the participants' waiting area with Naruto and next she was pinned to the wall by her boyfriend. As the sudden attack made her yelp in surprise, Naruto took full advantage of it as his lips swiftly descended on hers; his tongue snaking in and instantly making contact with Hinata's. He ravished her mouth with extreme vigor and pressed his body tightly against hers.

The said girl was utterly surprised but when she felt the 'chakra pill' she understood what Naruto was doing. So she just went with the flow as she shyly accepted her boyfriend's aggressive kiss, making him to growl in satisfaction.

The passionate kiss went on till they had to separate because of the lack of air. It took a while before Hinata could calm her breathing and her erratic heartbeats. She looked down at Naruto whose nose was at the crook of her neck as he was taking in on her scent. She gently started to rub his hair.

"There are other ways to pass a medical pill." Hinata joked, her cheeks were still red.

"I wouldn't be an unpredictable ninja if I follow the common paths, now will I?" Naruto replied back smoothly.

"_Naruto Uzumaki versus Sabaku no Gaara." _

Hearing the loud announcement Naruto sighed lightly. Hinata cupped his cheeks and raised his head to look directly into his eyes, "You are going to be fine. Show them who is the boss." With that she kissed lightly on his lips,

"Good luck, my lightning king."

Naruto smiled hearing that. "Thank you," With that he ran down the corridor.

"Be safe." Hinata whispered to herself as she went toward the participants' waiting area.

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XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

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**At the Arena**

Naruto entered to see Gaara already there waiting for him, though he looked a tad bit agitated.

"Chill out bro, what's the rush?" Naruto said offhandedly as he started to stretch a bit. Unbeknownst to him, he started to attract a lot of attention from the female population when they saw his new getup.

"Both of you ready?" Hayate asked and looking at them he got his answer.

"Go."

"Mother will have your blood." Gaara said as the sands started to pour out from his gourd. Naruto looked a bit stunned hearing that but it was soon replaced with an irritated scowl,

"Well you can tell your fatass mommy that she can go suck my foxy daddy's furry dick."

Total silence fell upon the arena as if time itself stopped.

Inside Naruto's mindscape Raiju was looking blankly at the mighty Kurama who was rolling on the floor while laughing his ass out. He would stop to bang his paw and then roll around again.

"**Tell the brat that I would help him **_**one time**_** because of this show."** Kurama said between his hysteric laughter, **"Even I didn't trash talk the sandbag this badly before."**

Raiju's lips twitched upwards a bit, **"I will but I think he is busy right now. Avoiding your brother's attack is no easy task, especially when he is pissed."**

"**Pffft,"** Kurama snorted, **"The brat will be fine. Unless the sandbag decides to go full Biju mode on his ass he will do ok."**

"**Let's hope so."** Raiju sighed.

In the outside world, Naruto was in a pinch as Gaara's attack was much more vicious than what he anticipated. He had to jump and dash all around the arena to dodge the sand attack. Seeing the fierceness of Gaara or rather of his sands, Naruto cursed his big mouth.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu." Five copy of Naruto came out and ran at different directions as they took out a small paper ball.

Gaara on the other hand was having trouble controlling his sands as it was more like the sand was following his monster's order directly. To him it never happened before and because of it he had a worse headache than usual.

"Mother, calm down." Gaara was panting, "I will give you his blood, I promise."

But his mumbling stopped when suddenly there was a splash sound. He looked to see that Naruto and his clones were throwing water balls at his sands making them wet and heavy which in turn was hampering their movement. Seeing that, Gaara's headache decreased who understood what it meant.

Gaara took control of the sands as he started to move around in a more organized and precise manner but the damage was already done. He estimated that around forty percent of his sand was drenched and was hard to maintain. But he still took out all of Naruto's clone with one good swipe thinking that it would even out the field.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu." Clearly he didn't know Naruto.

When the smoke cleared, this time twenty Shadow clones came out and all were holding two paper balls in each hands. Naruto smirked when he saw Gaara getting frustrated. He started to like Fuinjutsu more and more. The paper balls were containers for water but instead of having one huge container like Haku, he went for lots of small one and in that way he had more accuracy. His clones were throwing the paper balls at different areas of Gaara's sand making it hard for him to control. Slowly he was chirping away his sands and he didn't even started to go all out.

"Enough!" Bellowed Gaara and went through handseals, too fast for Naruto to know what was coming at him.

"Quicksand Waterfall Flow."

Nothing happened first except for all of his remaining sands going underground. But after few seconds all hell broke loose. Beneath the ground a large sea of sand rose. It gathered around Gaara before slamming onto the ground spreading around the whole area like tsunami waves and crushing everything.

"Are you fuc….." Was all Naruto could say before he and all of his clones were drowned by the ocean of sand. The whole area was shaking and the ground rose few meters high.

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Outside the Arena

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"Naruto!" Hinata shouted when she saw Naruto got swept away by the sand waves. All the other genins and participants were either awestruck or scared when they saw the devastating power of Gaara.

In a matter of seconds Gaara changed the arena to his liking while crushing his opponent like he was no more worth than a bug. The share demonstration of Gaara's power made even the jonin to tense up. Although they were hoping Naruto would be ok but their voice wasn't that hopeful. They did wonder why the Suna kid went so far and how he got so much power.

For now they were glad that Yamato wasn't there or Gaara's Jonin instructor's head would be rolling off by now.

"_Guess now we will see if the kid really does have Storm release or no."_ Darui thought as he looked down at the arena.

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Back at the Arena

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"Sand Waterfall Imperial Funeral" Gaara didn't wait a bit as he went for his second jutsu.

This time the sand that covered the arena started to flatten and crush whatever was beneath it. But suddenly at one area the whole ground exploded as huge amount of lightning started to come out from there. And the same lightning slowly took a rough form of a barrier around the crater as the rest of the sand were harmlessly stuck outside.

Naruto came out from the crater, the lightning shield decreased in sized but was still around him. He looked at Gaara and cracked his neck, "Damn! You really went all out there." He stated as he looked around to see the damage caused by Gaara's jutus.

One thing caught Gaara and everyone's attention was that now Naruto was wielding two swords which were different from one another. One was a long katana with a sky blue colored blade and around the blade collar there was some unknown marking. The spacer and the handle of the katana had a unique design as if they were representing something. The other one was a short sword of western style. From the guard to the center of the blade there were some unique patterns. But what caught the attention was the small gem engraved in the middle of the cross guard of the sword.

"Like my swords?" Naruto smirked when he saw how Gaara was on guard the moment his eyes fell on his weapons. He couldn't blame him, after all his weapons were re-forged and enhanced by Raiju, a divine beast. The aura of the sword would be unsettling for Gaara who was relying too much on his monster. Gaara didn't reply anything as he raised his arm. Following his command, the sands all around him started to rise and gathered around him again. Seeing that Naruto narrowed his eyes, "Oh no you don't."

The gem inside Naruto's short sword glowed as he channeled his chakra into it. Slowly lighting chakra started to envelop the blade of the sword and the chakra extended, altering the shape of the short sword into the same as the katana he was holding on his other hand. From a different perspective, it was as if Naruto was holding two same sword with one made of pure steel while the other was made of lightning chakra.

"Twin moon storm style: Crescent moon."

This time the lightning energy wave was much stronger and from above the shape of the attack looked exactly like a crescent moon. When the attack connected the sands a huge lightning explosion occurred. Gaara was made to jump back as his sand took defensive form to protect him from the huge blast. Although he didn't took any damage because of his 'shield of sand' activating right on time, the area around them wasn't lucky as most of the sand was solidified. Closer part of the impacted area was even turned to glass.

"So how do you like my Raiju no Ken? You can just call'em Raiken for short." Naruto grinned wildly.

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Outside the Arena

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"That was a storm release technique, wasn't it?"

"Yes it was." Darui replied, _"Even I can't fuse my storm release with weapons."_

"So we are going with the plan?"

"It would seem so."

For the rest of the Konoha twelve who was sitting in the stadium, they were awestruck. Most of them, didn't know about Naruto possessing bloodline or him being capable of using swords. But when the jonins around them started to whisper about him having 'Storm Release' bloodline they were taken aback. The Jonins were even praising his weapons saying it was of high quality.

"Did any of you know that Naruto has a bloodline?" Ino asked looking around but the dumbfounded faces of her friends gave her the answer.

"Well he did use that strange jutsu to beat Kiba but no one pondered much on it as our jonin sensei didn't say anything." Tenten said as she tried to focus on Naruto. Kiba just grumbled hearing that.

"Wow so Sasuke isn't the only one with a bloodline." Chouji asked as he kept munching on his chips.

"Ya but I still think Sasuke's one is the best." Sakura mumbled.

"Not exactly." Hearing that everyone looked at Neji who just grumbled, he wasn't the type who liked to be in the spotlight.

"Sharingan and Byakugan is more of a passive type of bloodline while Naruto's one is an aggressive type. And even Sharingan is unable to copy jutsu from an elemental or active type of bloodlines. Also can you imagine what someone like Naruto who has tons of chakra can do with a destructive elemental bloodline like that?" Neji explained as much as he could.

Everyone shivered when they tried to imagine what Neji just described.

One thing crossed all of their minds was that they were glad that Naruto was on their side.

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Back at the Arena

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Naruto really loved his new swords. Raiju told him how his Raiken was different from Kiba. The katana was made from Kiba and the only difference between that and the original Kiba was his Katana could store pure lightning into it, although there was a limitation of how much it could store. And the short sword was made purely by Raiju, it was to give Naruto more flexibility. His short sword had the ability to create and stabilize different weapons forms but he had to master it first. For now he could only do Katana form and one more.

Naruto put the katana on his back and the short sword on his thigh belt holster. He had other plans for Gaara's sand defense. He made some shadow clones and each started to run at different directions one more time. Seeing that Gaara went through some handseals thinking Naruto was going for his old tricks but once again he underestimated Naruto.

"Uzumaki style: piercing phantom arrow."

Lightning enhanced kunai came at Gaara with extreme speed. Gaara was surprised when all the kunai went through his sand shield, literally. Although Gaara didn't get any serious deep cuts as all the kunai gazed him. What he didn't know that Naruto had put paralyzing poison in those kunai. Gaara started to feel the effect of the poison quite soon as his control of the sand started to stammer.

Naruto took a deep breath as he started to prepare for his next jutsu. He knew that this would steer a lot of commotion but he wouldn't be Naruto if he would let this chance slip by.

As raw chakra slowly started to gather and spin around Naruto's palm everyone's eyes started to widen who knew about the legendary jutsu. Gaara knew that whatever Naruto was going to do would be bad for him and as usual his sands heeded his inner thoughts as most of the sand gathered around him and solidified his 'Shield of Sand'. The rest of the sand started to take form of huge sand shuriken.

Two of Naruto's shadow clone stood in front of the original. One shadow clone transformed into a fuma shuriken as the other one threw the giant weapon at Gaara who ignored it believing that his sand would be able to block it as he sent all of his sand shuriken at Naruto. To his surprise, the fuma shuriken changed back to clone and the original Naruto used 'Kawarimi' with the said clone, instantly closing the gap by a huge margin and at the same time dodging all of his sand shuriken. Seeing the danger Gaara's shield covered his full body.

"Rasengan."

Naruto plunged the pure chakra sphere onto the sand which started to drill into the shield and slowly it went inside albeit with some difficulty. For a few second nothing happened and then from behind the sand shield Gaara came out and flew backward, all the way till the end of the arena. He got slammed into the wall and went through it, literally.

Everyone's jaw dropped to the floor as they witnessed the event transpiring at the arena. But before any could retort the whole stadium was covered by feathers falling from the sky.

Naruto was taken aback when Baki the jonin instructor suddenly got into the arena and without a word dashed toward him.

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XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

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**Sometimes Earlier**

"So when do you think they are going to strike?" Ibiki asked the Jonin head and their chief strategist.

"If I were to guess it would be sometime around one of the chunin exam fights." Shikaku sighed.

"I wish our patrol teams find those targets soon." Ibiki rubbed his forehead.

"They already found one target but the problem is we have to take it out fast before the other party can realize what is going on. War sure is so troublesome." Shikaku started to look through the map.

"Everything is too troublesome for you." Inoichi laughed.

Currently Inoichi, Shikaku and Ibiki were in Konoha anbu headquarter as they were preparing for the upcoming battle. When Ibiki spied on Kabuto and learned about the surprise attack, he went to gather information personally and with enough proof he talked with the Third directly.

Hokage was saddened when he learned about the sand's betrayal but he didn't want to create commotion so he asked Jiraiya for help who advised him to go for counter-attack instead of attacking first. So instead of telling everyone, Hiruzen only informed few people and the anbu so that their counter-attack would remain a surprise. Now these three people had taken control of the command center and was ordering few small but strong units that started working from the dawn to take out as many enemies as they could.

"You really have to give it to that girl, Haku was it? If she didn't tell you about the traitor genin, who knew what would have happened?" Inoichi said.

"The proctor Hayate already was suspicious of him but if he were to trail them he might not have come out of there alive." Ibiki replied as sat down and relaxed for a second, "That girl is good and I sincerely hope that she stays here in Konoha. She can be a really valuable asset to us."

"It's rare to see you praising someone, Ibiki." Shikaku joked but instantly went on alert, "Team four has found the main target." Hearing that the other two got up and came near the table.

"So what now?" Ibiki asked.

"They are going to engage as soon as the other three teams come to their location. According to them this is something big so they will not take any chances." Shikaku stopped for a second before he looked at Inoichi, "Sent the alarm, the invasion is going to happen soon."

Inoichi didn't even ask a single question as he immediately started to relay orders.

"I will go and alert the rest of the villages." Ibiki said but before he could go Shikaku stopped him, "Alert the jonins in the stadium first." Ibiki nodded and took off. He looked at the map of Konoha before him before running his hand through his hair, "I sincerely hope that the invasion is not going to be too troublesome." But in less than five minutes huge explosions occurred outside making him to sigh.

"So it begins."

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XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

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**At the Arena**

Naruto looked at Asuma who was holding back Baki with a stunned expression. But the chaos all around the stadium broke him out of his stupor quickly although before he could ask anything he narrowed his eyes when he saw Temari and Kankuro taking Gaara off to somewhere.

"Hayate, gather all the genin and follow the 'Invasion Protocol'." Asuma dodged a wind blade and blocked the second one with his.

Hayate nodded and immediately took off with Naruto behind his tail who followed his suit reluctantly. Seeing that they were out of his sight, Asuma loosened up his stance and looked at Baki, "Guess it is time for the counter-attack to begin." All of Baki's danger senses went off. But he couldn't even go and tell anyone else as Asuma immediately went aggressive.

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With Naruto

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"Hayate-san, what is going on?" Naruto asked as he looked around to see fights breaking out everywhere.

"We are under attack. It seems that Suna backstabbed us with the sound village, but don't worry the leaf will prevail." Hayate said with a resolute voice. Their first stop was at the participants' area but was surprised what they saw there,

"What happened here?" Hayate asked, that area wasn't looking any good.

"Temari had thrown a small bomb before she took off. We were caught off guard." Hinata replied as she was helping Ranmaru to get up.

"What about the Kumo nins?" Hayate was getting frustrated.

"I don't know, when the smoke cleared they were already gone." Ranmaru said between coughs.

"Hayate-san, you have to let me go. I need to find Gaara before it is too late." Naruto asked desperately, Hayate was confused when he heard Naruto's voice, "What do you mean?"

"Gaara is like me but he is more unstable." Hayate immediately understood what Naruto was telling him and was surprised to see that Naruto knew about his condition.

"I can't let you go alone."

"Then let me go with him, he needs my eyes to pinpoint their location and I know about Naruto's _condition_." Hinata volunteered instantly. Hayate started to debate inwardly knowing full well that if Naruto was right then they needed to follow Kazekage's children but he couldn't abandon the other genins. But when he saw the all familiar purple hair, he sighed in relief. He motioned them to follow him.

They landed in front of the VIP section where several anbu was defending the area. Hayate went toward one particular female anbu, "Neko-san I need your help and it's urgent."

Yugao knew that something was wrong so she followed Hayate and met Naruto, Hinata and Ranmaru. Before she could ask Hayate continued, "Naruto thinks Gaara is like him but more dangerous and I think it is also true as the other children of Kazekage took him to somewhere." Yugao was surprised but didn't show it, "I know this sounds unreasonable but would you help them to get there. I believe Naruto can defeat him, he already did though." Hayate said with a weak chuckle.

"I am guessing these two are coming as well." Yugao said but Hayate shook his head.

"Hinata will go but Ranmaru will stay and it is not up for debate." The last part was directed at the genins. They agreed reluctantly.

"Then we should make haste." With that Yugao, Naruto and Hinata left the stadium.

Hayate looked at their retreating back for few seconds before turning and going toward the other side of the stadium with Ranmaru.

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With the Kumo Nins

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"Why didn't you grab the girl, you had the perfect chance?" Shouted D.

"Because it would be unwise as it was too risky." C said.

"Wise choice," Darui said as he and his partner landed in front of them, "And you shouldn't be talking too much after getting beaten so badly. Learn from it." D just scoffed but didn't say anything, "C, I want you to sense our target. We came at the right time, this invasion is exactly what we needed to cover our tracks."

"Darui-sensei, so what's the plan?" Yugito asked,

"Simple, we wait for the right moment and then we strike and leave as fast as we can. No.3 has already sent words to the mercenary group outside who are waiting for our order." Darui's speech was interrupted by few strong explosions.

"Better we do it hurry." No.3, Darui's partner, gave his thought.

"Got them, it seems the storm release user and the Byakugan girl are heading somewhere with another person. I would say the new person is low jonin level." C reported.

"Perfect, guess lady luck is on our side." No.3 smirked.

"Let's just hope no obstacles come in our way." Darui sighed as he looked at everyone else, "Listen, we are to engage that team when they are out of sight. We strike swiftly, kill the jonin and knock out our target." Darui narrowed his eyes dangerously, "I mean knock them out swiftly and if I see _anyone_ trying to compromise the mission I will strike _him_ down right there." D gulped visibly as everyone knew who he was talking about.

"Make sure not to harm the target too much, and remember failure isn't an option." Barked D, "Now move out!"

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At the Hokage stand

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The moment the genjutsu was casted on the stadium it was the signal to start the invasion. The Kage box erupted in smoke blocking everyone's view inside there. Few things happen in a span of few seconds.

Most of the people jumped away from the Kage box and took a defensive position but Kazekage leaped at Hokage and immediately all his four bodyguards took every corner of the roof and swiftly they created a purple barrier. Baki without waiting for any order jumped to the arena making Orochimaru, disguised as Kazekage, scowled when he understood that Baki was going after Naruto. But right now he concentrated on the task at hand.

Hiruzen and Orochimaru separated immediately after their feet touched the ground.

"To think you would have fallen so far." Hiruzen sighed making Orochimaru to tense up.

"You knew, sensei?" Orochimaru dropped his disguised and gave a twisted smiled at his mentor.

"I didn't want to believe at first but after few pieces falling into right places everything made sense." Hiruzen removed his cloths to show that he was wearing his battle gear, "And you are not the only one with surprises, my student." With that he threw his smoking pipe into the ground which exploded and when the smoke cleared up Orochimaru scowled what he saw.

"Nice to see you again, teme."

Orochimaru didn't wait even one second when he saw Jiraiya as he went for his jutsu,

"Formation of Ten Thousand Snakes."

Countless number of summoned snakes crawled out of Orochimaru's mouth and went toward the duo opposite of their master and what made them more deadly was that they opened their mouths to extend Kusanagi-like blades. Both Jiraiya and Hiruzen went through same handseals and shouted together,

"Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet."

The two same jutsu combined together and created one huge massive fire dragon and charged at the oncoming attack. When the two destructive jutsu met at the center, the fire dragon engulfed all the snakes with flames completely obliterating them. But it gave Orochimaru enough time that he need to bring out his main technique.

"Summoning: Impure World Reincarnation."

Coffins started to rise from the ground. Behind the pillars of flames Hiruzen noticed it to some extent and gasped loudly when he understood which jutsu Orochimaru was using. He pumped up more chakra on his jutsu as he took control over the fire dragon and sent it to Orochimaru over the burning corpses of snakes. Orochimaru had to move away to dodge the fire dragon effectively stopping him from bringing out the third coffin.

When all the fire cleared out, two coffin stood tall in front of Orochimaru who was laughing madly at Hiruzen and Jiraiya, "Nice try both of you but I have the advantage now." The lid of the coffin fell and two figures came out seeing whom made Jiraiya and Hiruzen to shudder. The figures stopped and looked at the duo.

"Sensei." Hiruzen whispered.

"Long time no see old monkey." Said the first person who was none other than the first Hokage.

"Edo Tensei." The second figure who was the second Hokage and the creator of the said forbidden jutsu said with a heavy voice, he looked back to see a grinning Orochimaru, "Am I to presume that you brought us back using my forbidden jutsu."

Orochimaru laughed loudly, "Yes that would be me. I would like to say that you created one ingenious jutsu, nothing has beaten this jutsu in terms of originality and usability so far."

"I told you not to play around with forbidden jutsu." Hashirama sighed.

"Shut it, you lazyass brother." Tobirama growled.

"Sorry to burst your reunion but I got a village to destroy." Orochimaru took out two talisman but before he could put into the back of the revived Hokages' heads a huge amount of water fell over him as he was completely drenched but the worst part was the talisman was soaked as well rendering it useless. Orochimaru seethed as he looked at Tobirama who just shrugged, "My bad."

"This is impossible, you can't harm the one who summoned you." Bellowed Orochimaru.

"Technically I didn't harm you rather I gave you a shower because you had a bad smell." Tobirama answered casually.

"Enough!" Orochimaru was beyond angry, first he couldn't summon his backup and now his only way to completely control the two Hokage was destroyed, "Go deal with the toad, I will take care of sensei myself."

"Shit." Was all Jiraiya could say before the two Hokage pounced on him making him to separate from Hiruzen who was left to fight against Orochimaru.

"Can't we talk about this?" Jiraiya was shouting as he was running away from the rampaging Kages, "You two are supposed to be amongst the strongest Kage, can't you do something about this?"

"Unfortunately," Hashirama jumped and tried to punch Jiraiya who dodged away at right moment, "The kid over there decreased our power level. I need some time to break out from this but I am not sure if I can do it with my current power." Hashirama chuckled weakly.

"If I were to say, the brat would have released our full power after he had implanted the talisman." Tobirama tried to back kick and followed up with another one but Jiraiya dodged both, "Your reflexes are good." Praised Tobirama.

"_When you have an angry horde of women chasing after you, your reflexes will improve tremendously." _Jiraiya thought but kept it in his mind. Suddenly an idea came to him, "I am quite good with fuinjutsu, is there any way I can use that against this jutsu?"

Tobirama had a thoughtful expression but his body was still attacking Jiraiya nonstop. "Hmm, I think there might be a way but before that can you tell me who is that kid?" Tobirama asked.

"You mean Orochimaru, he ….."

"Not that imbecile, I meant the blond brat over there." Tobirama pointed at Naruto, Jiraiya was surprised how Tobirama pinpointed him all the way from here. Hashirama seemed to notice him as well.

"Now that you mentioned, his chakra does stands out and it feels really similar to ours. Is he Tsunade's child?" Hashirama asked.

"No, he is an orphan who …"

"The kid wasn't dropped from the sky you idiot. We are asking who were his parents?" Tobirama asked but he met with silence which Jiraiya would regret later.

"You know what, I think I will tell you the failsafe of the jutsu a tad bit later. It is high time the brats of this age are taught how to respect their elders." Tobirama cracked his knuckles making both Jiraiya and Hashirama to go pale.

"I think I remembered now who his parents were."

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With the Kumo nin

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The Kumo nins were following Naruto's team silently, not even once they stopped to help the civilians or anyone else. They had one thing in their mind and it was to complete their missions. They sped up when they saw Naruto's team leaving the village and entering the outside forest but they were stopped immediately.

Two people came in front of them, one of them had distinctive pale skin and white hair. The other was taller and more muscular who had spiky orange hair. Seeing their attire, the Kumo nins knew that they were from Sound. But what actually caught them all off was their aura and stance.

"You have quarrel with Leaf shinobi not us, we are just leaving the village. We don't care what you do to this village nor do we want to help." Darui said as he came front.

"Yes but then why are you following those particular Leaf shinobis?" The white haired guy said as he pointed his thumb at back making all of the Kumo nins to stiffen.

"Scatter."

"Ten-Finger Drilling Bullets."

In just one second, C and Yugito got several cuts all over their bodies. Darui and No.3 cursed knowing that their opponent was no pushover.

"We two will hold them, you three follow our target. Meet up with our reinforcements _and then_ capture them." Darui ordered and his teammates didn't waste one minute as they went different directions.

"We didn't wanted any troubles." No.3 growled.

"Names Kimimaro and his is Jugo." Said Kimimaro as he slowly started to walk toward them, "Unfortunately your actions were troubling for Orochimaru-sama and that I cannot allow."

"Lightning Release: Black Panther." Darui generated black lightning from his body which took the form of a panther. It charged at Kimimaro and Jugo fully intending to kill them.

"Piston Fist: Style One."

With a loud explosion the raging panther was destroyed like it was nothing. But this wasn't what surprised the Kumo nins rather the changes that started to appear on their opponents. With a pale face, they watched as Kimimaro and Jugo's appearances changed and took a more animalistic feature.

"Can I kill them Kimimaro?" Jugo asked hysterically.

"Of course, that is what we are tasked to do by Orochimaru-sama after all."

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At the Residing Area

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The dead bodies of sound and sand ninjas were lying around him as he looked at them with a sigh.

"It seems no matter where I go, war always blooms." With another depressed sigh he went toward one particular house. It was at the furthest and it was built to hide itself from plain sight. He stopped and looked at the old and unused house. One particular fact caught his eyes which made him smile, at the side of the door there was a plate where the name of the owner of the house was written though the plate was old and rusty making it hard to read the name but he still got it,

"Uzumaki Kushina."

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**Done.**

**Till next time.**


	32. Chapter 32 : Prepared Leaf

**Hey everyone.**

**Guess this is the longest break I took from this story. I did have my reasons for it but now I am back. I don't wanna waste time here but before going to the story just take a note that I revised **_**all**_** the previous chapters. It was one of the reasons for me being late in posting the new one. But I can honestly say that the old chapters are more **_**readable**_** as I fixed a lot of mistakes.**

**Also as an apology, I wrote this chapter bigger than my usual ones.**

**Last would be a 'Big Thank You' to everyone who reviewed, followed, favorite and read the story.**

**So now onto the new chapter.**

_**Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto.**_

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In a shinobi war, most of the shinobi villages would always try to damage the opposing nation as much as they could, even if it meant to attack innocent civilians or kill academic students.

That was why Suna and Oto forces were moving toward the civilian side of the Konoha as fast as they could. Their aim was to use the civilians as hostages and fight their way into the deeper part of Konoha. The moment they entered the civilian quarter, the leader immediately knew something was wrong. But before he could give _any kind _of command to his forces, large explosions occurred from where they came. Many of their soldiers got caught and the rest knew what just happened.

They were boxed in.

Their leader immediately barked an order to take cover, and they did. But before he could give a second order, he was taken out. It happened too fast, and most of the attackers didn't saw what happened. But after taking out the leader, it was easy to take down the disarranged strike force for the Anbu special force.

"_Cut the head of the snake and the body dies." _

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XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

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**At Hospital**

Sasuke knew something was wrong, when he was taken to the hospital directly instead of the clinic ward available at the stadium. He told the Chunin that he was fine and there was no need to take him to the hospital. But, they didn't pay any heed to him. Neither he nor Haku received injuries that required them to go to the hospital. And his theory was solidified when he saw how guarded the hospital was, as if it was a fortress.

So instead of arguing with the people that were taking him to his room, he just observed the surroundings. He could see that senior doctors were tensed and there were too many shinobi lurking around. Even the nurses were running to and fro.

He knew something was going to happen, something bad.

The Chunin put both Sasuke and Haku in Lee's room before hurrying off.

Sasuke saw that there were two people outside the door. He really didn't like where this was going. He took out two gloves and wore them. The gloves were a bit special as it had two rings on each fingers and lots of writings on the back and top of the palm.

_This_ was what he was working for the last whole week.

He wondered how Naruto was fairing with his fight. If he was being honest, it was Naruto who changed the most after graduating from academy. Not only changes, but also he accomplished a lot. His best achievement would be that he got a family. While thinking about this, his eyes fell on the unconscious girl beside his bed.

And then it happened.

He heard large explosions occurring far away and immediately there was a siren. That was a special siren, only to be used when,

Sasuke's eyes widened in realization as everything fell into pieces.

The village was being invaded.

He got up and went for the door but before he could even open it a large explosion occurred _inside_ the hospital. It was so strong that it shook the whole building. Sasuke lost his balance but he steadied himself. He opened the door in a hurry to see the guards went a bit far to help few people. Seeing this, we went toward the guards to help them, locking the door.

"Those bastards are not going spare anyone. To think they would strike at the hospital first."

"If we don't do something they are going to massacre everyone , including the injured and the innocent."

Sasuke stopped dead on his track.

'_Massacre'._

His sharingan was automatically activated. He looked to side where he heard lots of shouting and screaming. And his legs moved on its own toward that place.

'_Massacre'._

He saw few old people lying around, dead. But his eyes showed different people, different scene.

'_Massacre'._

The empty compound, the eerily quiet houses.

'_Massacre'._

His body was on auto-pilot mode. He went pass few dead and heavily injured people. Then he came to one place where he saw the losing fight. The people that were protecting the hospital were losing badly. And around them there were bodies of patients and nurses, the innocent.

"What are you doing here kid?"

One leaf nin look toward but that caused him his life as few kunai hit his vitals. He just looked at him and mouthed 'run' before falling to the ground, dead.

He looked at the scene in front of him. All the Konoha shinobi were dead, as well as the innocent bystanders.

'_Massacre'._

He touched his gloves and all the seals activated. He then walked slowly toward the battlefield, his face void of expression, his eyes, dead.

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With Haku

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Haku woke up immediately when the building shook, needles ready. But she wobbled a bit and saw Sasuke going out. He locked the door but he didn't look back. She wanted to follow but felt her legs giving out for a minute.

"What happened?" Haku looked to her side to see Lee who also had a defensive pose even though he was in his bed.

"I do not know but I am going to check it out." Haku replied but before she could go, she stopped. Haku looked at Lee, there was no way she could leave him like that.

"I have some chakra pills, will that help you to walk?"

"There are some special kinds of pills in that drawer. Gai-sensei gave me those yesterday saying that to take them in case of emergency." Lee pointed to the drawer near him.

Haku nodded.

After taking their respective pills and with the help of a crutch for Lee, they got out of the room and saw the chaos.

"This is most unyouthful." Lee said in a horrified voice.

"You think?" Haku sweat-dropped.

They slowly made their way toward the entrance of the hospital, and all the time both of them had a defensive stance ready for anything.

They would never forget the scene that greeted them when they came to the lobby.

Friends or foes, no matter who it was, everyone was cut up cleanly. There were body parts everywhere. Haku even saw one enemy was crawling with one hand and was trying to reach his torso. Lee looked away, his face was green. And then one sound alerted Haku, she looked at the source to see Sasuke was emptying his stomach in a trash bin.

Haku went to his side to ask what happened but his blood-soaked hands and clothes told her everything.

She wanted to know what he did but when he looked at her, all of Haku's words died when she saw it,

Tears of blood.

.

.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

.

.

**At the Stadium**

Even amidst the raging battle, the Konoha shinobi were able to safely evacuate both nobles and civilians. Although there were some casualties but no innocent bystanders died.

As for the genin, they were being taken to a safe place by Yamato and Kurenai. Hayate took the genin to them after that he left to help somewhere else. From there the two Jonin took charge of taking them to safety.

Ranmaru looked around.

He never had a place where he could call home. The people at the place where he used to live were kind at first but when they saw that he was a different they became cold and uncaring toward him. He would have died if it wasn't for _him_.

But now he had another chance. And in the past few months, this village gave him more than he ever hoped for. A brother, a sister, a guardian and more importantly, a home; a home where there was a family waiting for him.

And now this home was being attacked.

He wanted to do anything to help to protect the village, no matter how small his help maybe.

He then looked at the Kage booth and saw the barrier. Suddenly an idea hit him when he saw how the barrier was being sustained.

"Yamato-sensei," He called out to Yamato.

"What is it, Ranmaru?" Yamato went to his level when Ranmaru ushered him to come close.

Getting closer, Ranmaru whispered to Yamato, "Sensei, I think I can help taking down that barrier."

Yamato backed off a bit and looked at Ranmaru surprised. He wanted to say that the new genin didn't have any idea what he was talking about but his determined eyes told him otherwise. With a sigh, he looked at the barrier.

Even till now, Anbu were failing to break the barrier and Yamato could see that they weren't going to find any solution anytime soon. The decision was quite simple but he just didn't want his student in such a hotspot. But he knew that there was no other choice.

"Kurenai-san, can you take the kids to the safe house? I have to go somewhere with Ranmaru."

Kurenai looked at him with a bit of confusion before nodding her head. With a bow of gratitude, Yamato picked Ranmaru up and dashed toward the Kage booth.

It was a bit hard to get to the Kage booth as he had to avoid fighting. But the areas around the Kage booth were cleaned off of enemies but still the Anbu had no luck in disabling the barrier.

Yamato came down and immediately went to an Anbu whose mask was blank, there weren't even eye holes. But the way he was holding himself was _demanding_ respect.

"Commander, is there any success in breaking the barrier?" Yamato asked politely.

The person in front turned to him, and just by his body gesture he gave the answer.

He was the sole leader of the Anbu and all of its division. He didn't have any name, not even any codenames. His title was his name, his identity. The only people who knew of his origin would be Hokage and _if_ the Hokage would tell anyone else.

Yamato looked at Ranmaru and sighed, he really didn't want to do this.

"I think my student can help to break the barrier."

.

.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

.

.

**With Naruto**

Naruto, Yugao and Hinata were closing up on the Suna siblings.

"Naruto."

Naruto looked at Yugao who had a conflicted look on her face as she asked, "How did you figure out that Gaara kid is a jinchuuriki?"

"I am not sure how to put it," Naruto said as his face made a confused expression, "But I think I can sense his chakra signature, like how it was affecting the nature in a different manner? Also his chakra had a distinct familiarity with mine."

Yugao just shook her head in understanding but she was having hard time analyzing what Naruto said. In a way it sounded like Naruto was a natural sensor but somehow she knew that there was more to it than that.

"Yugao-san, the siblings stopped."

Naruto and Yugao perked up hearing Hinata's words.

"What's their position?" Yugao asked.

"Temari and Kankuro stopped and have made a defensive line. Gaara is going forward, slowly but his chakra is going haywire." Hinata explained.

Yugao thought for a minute, she could let Naruto and Hinata fight the elder Suna children while she could go after Gaara. But she didn't know if she could detain Gaara without killing him. She looked at Naruto and Hinata, and sighed. She just hoped she was taking the right decision.

"Naruto, Hinata; you two will go after Gaara. I will handle the other two. I will go in fast and create a distraction and using that you two will keep pursuing. Don't stop because every second counts. And remember if you can incapacitate him, it is good. But if it is not possible, go for the kill." Yugao relayed her order.

Seeing Naruto to frown and Hinata to shudder, Yugao explained, "If that kid let out the Biju, hundreds of our shinobi will die, maybe more. And if he does that, we will have to kill him _anyway_. All I am saying that stop him at all cost before he releases his Biju."

Naruto and Hinata nodded back in understanding. Yugao smiled and looked at Hinata, "Can you tell me if there are any other people around us?"

Hinata concentrated to extend her vision limit, "There are no other enemies or any friendlies around sixty meters radius."

"Good to know."

With that Yugao went ahead of them but not far. She didn't stop even for a second but just made a small gesture with her hands before she dashed and charged toward the Suna siblings, catching them off-guard. And that gave plenty of time to Naruto and Hinata to pass them without losing their speed.

"Shit." Kankuro saw the duo passing and that slight break of concentration was all Yugao needed. But before she could strike down Kankuro, Temari threw some projectiles at her. Yugao dodged but using her momentum, she made a wide swipe at the puppet near Kankuro, breaking a huge portion of it.

"Fuck."

"Instead of cursing, you stupid-ass, concentrate on her or we will be losing our head." Temari gritted her teeth.

Kankuro take a good look of their opponent.

A _female _Anbu with long sharp object, it was not a good combo in any way.

Kankuro gulped visibly.

.

With Naruto and Hinata

.

When Hinata motioned, Naruto took out his sword and got ready.

The moment they landed they took a defensive stance but what they saw in front of them, made them to stop on their tracks involuntary.

Gaara's hand looked like that of a sand monster and not just that, he also had a big tail which came out from the gourd. Speaking of the gourd, right now it looked as if it was a part of his body. But what was truly frightening was his face and expression.

It was anything but human.

"So, you are finally here, Uzumaki." Gaara bellowed.

"You look like shit, man."

Blank stares,

That was what Naruto received from both Gaara and Hinata. For Hinata, she wondered if it was Naruto's talent to break any kind of tensed situation with his words.

Gaara narrowed his eyes but when he saw Hinata, he gave a maniacal smile, "Let's see if you can still talk big after I smash your friend over there."

Immediately lightning started to come out from Naruto's body and the short sword of his took a katana form. He narrowed his eyes and growled, "Touch her and I will have tanuki for dinner!"

Gaara smirked seeing the aggressive look on Naruto as he laughed out loud, "That's it my brother, let the anger go. After all, we are nothing but monsters. We are the loveless ones, the despised ones."

Naruto growled and dashed toward Gaara despite Hinata's acute protests.

Gaara took a huge swing at Naruto was in mid-air with his gigantic arm. Seeing the attack, Naruto rotated himself in the mid-air and slammed both of his swords into the huge claw like hand causing a small shockwave to occur. The shockwave pushed both of them back.

Naruto created shadow clones the moment he touched the ground and told them to attack.

Seeing the clones coming at him, Gaara threw projectiles made of sand from his tail. Those destroyed a good portion of clones but not all of them. One particular clone got close to Gaara and he just tried to swat it away. But unfortunately for him, Naruto switched with that clone and once again slammed his sword on his arm. Again the shockwave occurred and the result was same.

But it was at that moment that Gaara noticed that what was wrong. Yes, the shockwave pushed both of them back but Naruto's strikes were damaging his arm, rather intensively while Naruto wasn't taking any damage at all.

Gaara growled at Naruto and jumped back from him. But before Naruto could follow him, Hinata came in front. Naruto wanted to tell her to move but she then did the most unpredictable thing.

She grabbed his cheeks and pulled them, hard.

"Aw…..aw…aw, Hinaha, whas rong?" Naruto tried to talk but it was hard to do that with his cheeks being pulled like that, and it hurt like hell.

"Listen here mister, we are here to fight together and strategically against him. And all I am seeing is you disregarding me like a nobody and swinging your sword like a stick while fighting him like seven years old." Hinata said with a stoic face, like a Hyuuga.

This was the first time Naruto was seeing Hinata like this and frankly it was scary.

"Sawwy." That's all Naruto could say while gulping visibly.

"So, _we_ are going to fight him with cool head. No charging ahead like a toddler, understood?"

Naruto shook his head vigorously.

Hinata let his cheeks go and both of them jumped away to dodge few sand bullets. They looked at Gaara to see that he transformed again and now he looked a like a mini tanuki-monster.

Naruto made a blank face and looked at Hinata, "I blame this on…."

But one frowned look from Hinata and Naruto became quiet.

"So, what's the plan?"

Naruto asked Hinata when he landed closed to her, all the while dodging the sand bullets. He tried to keep his head cool but Gaara's continuous screaming of his name and taunts were really hard to ignore.

"You will fight him, but cautiously and try to give me an opportunity to go in and use my eight trigrams on him. I may need you to break his armor as well because I don't think my attack will be able to penetrate the defense he has now." Hinata told her boyfriend all the while keeping an eye out for Gaara.

"It's too risky." Naruto scowled immediately, because even he knew how dangerous it was to go close to Gaara the way he was now.

"My attacks are the only thing that can stop him without hurting him badly, either that or we have to strike him with lethal force." Hinata tried to reason with Naruto.

Naruto knew Hinata was right but still, the risk was too much. There were so many possibilities of her …..

"I will be fine because I got you to protect me." Hinata spoke softly.

"Fine, but you are _not_ going in till I say it is ok." Naruto gave in at the end.

With a smile, Hinata nodded.

"UZUMAKI!"

"COMING!"

.

.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

.

.

**With Kumo Nin**

Darui cursed his luck.

Their opponents were good, too good. No matter what he and his partner, No.3 were throwing at them, they were not slowing down rather they were coming with more vigor. If they were any weaker, the oto nin would have killed them by now.

But at least he was glad that his team made through this obstacle. If everything goes according to the plan, they should have reached the mercenary group by now. And from that point it was up to them. They were told before that for any reason if they would get separated, C would be the acting leader.

Darui was good at using the storm release and his black lightning and No. 3 was good at using his special weapon. It was a sword that can extend when used chakra on it and can be used as a whip. The range is quite good and the whip-strikes can counter a lot of attacks.

But their enemies were matching them blow to blow, maybe more than that.

Jugo was the front-line attacker, who was _destroying_ most of their jutsu through his piston fist or hammer fist. Kimimaro was following up and in a way he was deadlier than his partner. If Kumo nin thought that they have dodged all the attacks or was going to put Jugo down, Kimimaro would be there to rectify their mistakes.

Darui was so deep in thought of how to kill the ones in front that he forgot one simple fact. That their opponents were from Oto and currently they were invading the village the Kumo nin were in.

So he, neither his partner noticed few Oto nin jumping in from behind before it was late.

The Oto nin used various jutsu on them, all of which were missed and from one good combo strike from the Kumo nin, they were taken out. But they were separated because of this surprise attack and just for few seconds, they lost focus on their primary opponent.

Kimimaro and Jugo lunged at No.3 who clearly didn't see them coming like this.

"Secret Lightning art: Raging Snake."

The sword No.3 was holding extended and attacked the duo in a whip-like manner, it was to throw them off and give enough time for the Kumo nin to regroup. But it didn't work.

"Dance of the Clematis: Vine."

Kimimaro caught No.3's sword with his bone whip and completely immobilized him. And the next thing No.3 saw was Jugo in front of him with a more powerful and faster version of his piston fist,

"Piston Fist: Style One."

His attack was so strong that it went through No.3's chest, killing him instantly.

Darui cursed seeing the death of his partner and he knew that if he didn't run fast or some miracle wouldn't occur, he would be next.

And suddenly he felt like everything stopped, all the shouting and fighting, just for few seconds. He looked up and saw the reason. There were few red flares. Then he looked at Oto nin to see their face hardening, and he knew what it was.

It was a retreat signal.

.

.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

.

.

**Earlier at the Stadium**

Inside the Barrier

After hearing the quick explanation from Jiraiya, who was still running with all his might from them, Tobirama knew who Naruto was. He was his direct descendant. As much as he wanted to learn more, he knew he had to do something before the situation would go worse.

"Listen here toad," Jiraiya looked at the Second, "I will tell you how to undo this jutsu, but you have to pay attention."

"I will try my best considering I got two legendary shinobi on my ass." Jiraiya replied sourly as he dodged few consecutive attacks from the first.

"Sorry for that." Hashirama chuckled weakly.

"Listen closely, there are few ways to stop this jutsu. The easiest would be killing the summoner. Seeing that it is not the best option right now, you can work on another one. And that is binding our bodies through Fuinjutsu. It may take some time but it is the best choice in this situation I think." Tobirama explained, all the while trying to kill Jiraiya.

"I think I can," Jiraiya dodged yet another combo from the Senju brothers, "do that."

"OK, here how the seal goes."

In the meantime, Orochimaru was cursing his luck.

The battle was supposed to be easy because he thought it would be three against one. But the fact that Jiraiya was there, ruined it all. He was a lot of things but he wasn't stupid. He knew that Jiraiya might cancel his jutsu as he couldn't put the talisman on the two Hokage.

So his plan was to rush toward the other battle and strike down Jiraiya when he was less suspecting it. But his teacher was making it damn difficult.

Orochimaru thought that Hiruzen would talk and try to correct his path, like last time. And he would fight defensively. But no, Hiruzen didn't do either. When the Orochimaru ordered the two Hokage to go after Jiraiya, Hiruzen immediately lunged at him. And from the very first moment, he summoned Enma, the monkey king and went at him with full force.

Orochimaru knew he was strong but going all out against his teacher, he needed assurance, hence the Impure World Resurrection. But with that gone and the fact that he can't summon his snakes because of where they were fighting, made him quite vulnerable. Yes, he had aggressive jutsu and lots of kenjutsu but lots of them required lots of time and chakra. And against the 'God of Shinobi', those flaws would be lethal. But the worst part was how Hiruzen and Enma were switching between themselves to give Hiruzen enough time to catch his breath and resume his attacks.

"_It can't get any worse than this."_ Orochimaru grumbled.

And then the barrier went down.

Orochimaru just blinked when he saw that.

"_Are you shitting me?"_

.

Outside the Barrier

.

Moments earlier,

Their first thought was to blow off the pillars to destroy the platform. But the question rose that how would the barrier react? There was a high probability that the whole barrier might come down to the people inside which would endanger the Hokage. So the Anbu had to put that idea aside. But now,

"Are you sure, Ranmaru?" Yamato asked again, as appealing as it was, to him the idea was still risky.

"Yes, I can. And I know if something happens, you will come for me." There was no hesitation in the boy's tone and that made it harder. Because Yamato knew that in the Shinobi world nothing would go the way they want, all the time.

With a reluctant nod, Yamato picked Ranmaru up and took off. The rest of the Anbu took position to rush in.

Yamato placed Ranmaru to one corner of the barrier and inside the violet barrier there was one person who looked at them with arrogance. With a deep harsh breath, Yamato jumped off and left Ranmaru.

Ranmaru smiled when he saw the person in front looked at him intently. The little genin went through a lot of hand seals before whispering something to himself. And then he shouted,

"Demonic Illusion: Tree Binding Death."

Jirobo didn't think much when he saw the Jonin dropping the little kid in front of him. When Anbu were helpless against their barrier what can a child do? Then he saw the space around him getting distorted slightly. He immediately knew that he was under genjutsu. He then saw tree slowly growing and restricting his movement. He even started to feel pain and then the main attack came. Slowly the tree grew, completely immobilizing him. But he didn't let go off the barrier.

But when he started to see the heinous figures coming out from the tree, he had enough. With a jolt he released chakra burst, immediately dispelling the illusion.

When he was out of the genjutsu, he saw the scenery changed a bit. He cursed himself thinking he should have dispelled it sooner because now he had no idea how much time had passed. He was so into his thought that he didn't saw Ranmaru smirking and whispering to himself,

"Activate."

It was that moment that Jirobo saw Orochimaru coming toward him and shouted, "Drop the barrier, the old monkey is dead."

With a smile Jirobo dropped the barrier and then,

All hell broke loose.

Ranmaru smiled seeing that his tactic worked. He used his first genjutsu, 'Demonic Illusion: Tree Binding Death' to rile up Jirobo. It was done in a way so that he focused on that particular genjutsu so that he wouldn't see him doing a few others on him.

The second genjutsu, 'Genjutsu: Mist of space' was meant to give him a disoriented view of time. In a way it would look to him as if lot of time had passed. It is easy to notice after some careful observation but before Jirobo could do that, Ranmaru activated his third genjutsu.

It was a simple illusion of showing him that Orochimaru was done with his objective. And the reason it was more effective because he asked the Anbu and Yamato about how Orochimaru behaved around Hiruzen.

This consecutive genjutsu was the style Kurenai taught him, and it was called 'Layer-style Genjutsu'. It was hard to pull off but it was easy for him because of his eyes and the fact that his opponent was standing still.

The moment the barrier was down, all the Anbu rushed inside, few going after the 'Sound Four'. Orochimaru knew that it was over the moment he saw the barrier was dropped. So he shouted,

"Use everything to drop the building!"

Both the resurrected Hokage, Jiraiya wasn't fast enough to complete the seal, and the sound four used their destructive jutsu on the building.

Meanwhile, when Jirobo understood what truly happened, he saw red. He dashed toward Ranmaru but was intercepted by Yamato.

Yamato looked back and shouted, "Ranmaru, get away."

With a nod, Ranmaru tried to get away but everything went downhill from there.

Because the whole building exploded.

Ranmaru didn't expect that so he was thrown off form the building. Yamato yelled when he saw him falling down and wanted to go after him but Jirobo caught him and he was in his 'Curse mark: First level'.

The last thing Jirobo would remember was looking at the eyes of a ghost.

There was no sound, so hand seals, no movements.

Lots of hardened wooden branches came out from Jirobo's back and when he let go, Yamato just put his index and middle finger together and aimed at his open mouth. Long but thin branch shot out from there, which entered Jirobo's mouth and came out from the back, effectively ending his life.

As for Ranmaru, he tried to land or touch or hold onto anything but his chakra control wasn't that strong. He was scared but still he didn't lose his cool, he went for his last option. With all his effort, he put all of his chakra in his feet and tried to land. His idea was to land and then using that momentum, he would jump away.

But the moment his feet touched the wall of the building, it caved in, and his legs got caught in it. He slid all the way to the ground, rather harshly.

He was losing consciousness, fast. But he knew he couldn't give up. When he heard noises, he looked up to see the broken walls falling down. He tried to get away but he couldn't.

He looked down to see that both of his leg was under huge wreckage. Seeing that he wasn't getting out, his body relaxed accepting his demised fate. And with that his consciousness started to slip off. Before becoming unconscious the last thing he saw was the blazing walls coming closer and heard the distinct shouting of his sensei.

With a choked sob, he closed his eyes.

.

.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

.

.

**With Naruto **

Both had their strengths and weaknesses.

Naruto had the elemental advantages. He was faster and had varieties of techniques. He was more level headed than the current Gaara. Gaara on the other hand, kept regenerating his sand armor. And his defense was stronger. If Naruto wanted, he could have taken down Gaara with sheer power but he was scared that it might cause another transformation. So that was why, he was trying to give an opening for Hinata to knock out Gaara.

Now he knew what Yamato meant when he said that sometimes capturing a target was much harder than killing one.

Seeing that he regenerated again, Naruto got pissed. He looked at Hinata and gave a subtle sigh, it was or never.

"Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu."

Hundreds of his clone came into existence and all of them immediately dashed toward Gaara. Gaara tried to swat or strike away but they just kept coming. Hundreds of slight lighting enhanced fists descended upon him and there was no countering back. Hinata knew that her time was coming so she came forward but then it got worse.

But luck wasn't on their side. It was as if Gaara exploded and tons of sands came out, annihilating the clone army.

Naruto immediately dashed to Hinata. Picking her up, he ran to the other side. He looked back to see that the ground cracked open and sand started to come out, which combined with Gaara's own, started to make a humongous shape.

"**Naruto! Get away from there, his tailed beast is coming out."** Hearing Raiju's concerned voice, Naruto looked forward and started to think hard. He couldn't leave, because if he did then the village was next.

"_I am going for that."_

"_**That?! That isn't full-proofed yet."**_

"_But that's the only shot we got."_

_Raiju just sighed before warning, __**"Be-extra-careful."**_

"_I will."_

Naruto then looked at Hinata and spoke softly, "Hinata, I want you to listen to me….."

"I am not leaving and there is nothing you can do about it."

Naruto just looked blankly at his girlfriend who was glaring at him. She tightened her hold on Naruto to emphasize her point. Their stare-down continued but it got broken when the ground shook.

"Ok, fine. Then I need you to help me with something." Naruto gave in.

Naruto put down Hinata and then made ten clones, "I want you to protect all of these clones." Seeing Hinata's questioning face he smiled, "I will tell you everything later but for now just trust me."

Hinata soften up, "You know I always will."

Naruto smiled hearing that. He kissed Hinata softly and then ran back at Gaara. He didn't look back to see the concerned face of his girlfriend.

By the time Naruto reached, the Biju had already taken its full form. Although Gaara was still in control, Naruto knew he wouldn't be for long. But he still needed some time to complete that.

"Time to bring out that."

Naruto took out his gloves. He bit his thumb to draw out the blood and with that he touched the palm of both his hands. Instantly, two scrolls came out. He smirked at the sand tanuki who turned to look at him. He activated the scrolls, they were his last resort against Gaara if the fight in the stadium would have taken a darker turn. The scrolls didn't contain any weapons or water, they only contained,

Shadow Clones,

Powered up explosive Shadow Clones.

And there were total two hundred of them.

They all jumped and tried to grab hold of any part of huge sand monster. Gaara snorted as he commanded the huge beast to batter them away. But then one clone exploded, and then the chain reaction began.

The amounts of explosions occurred in less than ten seconds was enough to take down one tenth of Konoha. But all of them in such a short space were much more effective. The aftermath of it was so strong that it could felt all the way from Konoha.

Naruto flew away from his destination but he managed to create few shadow clones to help him in landing.

"Did that work?"

"UZUMAKI!"

"I guess so."

Naruto looked warily at the sand monster in front of him, who started to regenerate back and it was faster than before. But what truly made him worried was when he saw Gaara's tiny form, coming out from the forehead.

"To think that you'd push me this far Uzumaki," Gaara shouted, "I will let you have the honor to fight the real monster." With that he clapped his hand and slowly drifted to sleep.

Naruto knew it was bad and he didn't wait, he gave the signal and started to go through hand signals.

Naruto finished with hand seals and his body started to release a large amount of elemental charka, and then he waited. Not a second later, Naruto's body was overwhelmed by natural energy.

His hair became spikier. Lightning started to emit from his body and strong wind started to blew around him as well. But the most noticeable part would be his eyes and his whiskers. His whiskers were glowing blue as if they were electrified whereas looking at his irises would be like looking at the center of a Maelstrom from top view.

The idea hit them when they started training in Senjutsu. Naruto can learn and train in the arts of Senjutsu but his body was still not mature enough to handle natural chakra. The reason for it was that his chakra coil would give in before it could reach the full potential of the natural chakra. The first problem was that he couldn't gather natural energy quickly and as much as he needed to. The second was that, if he somehow would force to absorb natural chakra, his body wouldn't be able to hold and would violently release the natural chakra. And it was harmful to his body.

But Naruto, being the unpredictable he is, still found a way to use his weaknesses. The idea was that he would make few clones who would gather the natural chakra as much as they could and then would dispel themselves at the same time. In that way, he would gain the natural chakra fast and to the fullest. And as for how to avoid the second problem, he just needed to use a jutsu that would drain all the chakra fast before his body would start to release it back to the nature. And he had the perfect jutsu for it,

"**Yahoo! I am finally free."**

"Maelstorm Release: Hydra's Rampage."

Shukaku's musing stopped when he felt the unnatural pressure. He looked to his side to see nine dangerous looking snakes was hissing and coming toward him at a dangerous speed. He narrowed his eyes and took a deep breath in.

"**Wind Release: Drilling Air Bullet."**

The moment the air came out his mouth the nine snakes separated, one took the full it but in a way that it didn't make any huge explosion at their collision. And before Shukaku knew it, the remaining eight snakes were already on him, drilling through his body like it was nothing. He wanted to jump away but his legs were damaged. He tried to use another of his 'Air Bullet' but his body wasn't listening.

He screamed in anger, and then his eyes fell onto the user of the jutsu that caused his demise.

"**You will pay for what you did, insolent brat!"** Shukaku shouted and raised his arm as much as he could. Sands started to form around Naruto but to his surprise, Naruto jumped. And now he was above Shukaku. The reason Naruto could jump so high was because of his unique sage chakra, he couldn't fly yet but he could still jump high.

And to Shukaku's horror, Naruto let go of the orb that was controlling and holding the snakes and descended. He roared once more and tried to throw sand shuriken as many as he could with his battered body. But Naruto kept using shadow clones creatively to dodge and maneuver himself in the air. The sand beast watched helplessly as Naruto came down and punched Gaara, shouting,

"Wake the hell up!"

.

With Hinata

.

Hinata wanted to go with Naruto but knew that Naruto wouldn't have asked her to watch his clones if there were no special meaning behind it. She watched with her Byakugan that Naruto opened his scroll and then the army of clones came out.

She saw that those clones weren't normal and knew that what was coming. She warned the clones and got in front of them. She performed her 'Protecting Eight trigrams' to stop the debris from coming near the clones. And just a few moments later, there was a small different kind of explosion. Immediately all the clones who were meditating opened their eyes. She could see, _feel, _the difference and the most awestruck thing were their eyes. It was enchanting and at the same time endangering but before she could comment on it, all of them disappeared at the same time.

Then she went forward to see what was happening and she saw it all.

The moment Naruto punched Gaara and woke him up, the body of the sand beast completely broke down. And with it, those two fell down as well but all the sand softened up their fall greatly.

Hinata dashed toward them but when she saw two more chakra signatures approaching her destination, she sped up. She reached before the other two to see Naruto smiling at the fallen Suna jinchuuriki.

"You should start by those two."

No sooner he had said that, Gaara's siblings came and stood in front of him protectively. Hinata also took a stance but Naruto shook his head,

Hinata stepped back but didn't drop her guard. They understood the underlying meaning and nodded gratefully. They picked up Gaara, but before leaving Temari looked at them,

"The one who came with you is unharmed but because of the blast we were able to get away. She would be coming here soon."

Hinata released a breath of relief when she saw Yugao coming toward them, she could see that the Anbu was unharmed. Winded yes, but unharmed.

She also heard the siren. And she knew what that siren was for

The fight was finally over.

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**Done.**

**First, no, Ranmaru did NOT die, so don't panic. Wait for the next chapter.**

**Second, I will also explain what happened to the Kumo nin and Sasuke on the next chapter as well. I wanted to do it on this chapter but it would have taken longer to post, so I decided against it.**

**Also, sorry that I didn't write much regarding Hiruzen and Jiraiya's fights. Jiraiya was just running around and Hiruzen's fight was somewhat similar to the canon one, so I didn't feel the need to explain their fights in details.**

**One last thing would be that I did not make Shukaku weaker. Storm release can be considered as an advantageous bloodline against him. Also what Naruto used was a powerful S rank jutsu. Hope this explains. More about his Senjutsu will be explained later.**

**And if you are thinking what Naruto looks like in is Sage mode, check the picture of the story. I had this in my mind for a long time. **

**So that's it for now, till next time.**


	33. Chapter 33 : Aftermath

**Hello again, too soon it seems.**

**Yes, another chapter but it is not as long as the previous one. Now before I get to the story, here are some of the reviews I am going to answer,**

**Lockblock: Hope I answered your question lol.**

**Ryuujin96: Thanks mate and glad that you liked the story. And yes Hinata wasn't there for the battle as it was only between Naruto and Gaara. **

**Vallavarayan: Jiraiya is strong and he could take them down if they were mindless. The thing is he wanted to know how to stop the jutsu from the creator himself.**

**Sakurada Kiritsugu: Thanks, I want Yamato to have more badass moments and will work on that. And no Sasuke didn't get it, you will see it on the next chapter.**

**bigfan22: Thanks, and ya I could have put more details but I just wanted to finish the Chunin arc so I didn't stretch the chapter into two. And trust me, the things are going to get ugly for a lot of people.**

**Devilzxknight86: Thanks bro, glad that you liked it. **

**KingoftheSkyDragons21: Thanks, and for Divine fist, let's just say that I will make it more awesome, lol. And for your next part, read on.**

**Also, FinalKingdomHearts, Almighty Spartan, thor94, VizeerLord, ZyiareHellsing, yuzukikuran476, I.C.2014, my 2 guys, Kaorilamb, Joe, HitmaN007, yendenikhil1 thanks for reviewing. These reviews actually helps a lot in motivating.**

**Now onto the story. **

_**Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto.**_

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Darui was in front and rest of his team members were behind him, all of them were kneeling.

"So, can you tell me why not only you were unable to complete your mission but also lost a member?" Raikage wasn't happy, not one bit, "Even though you had the perfect chance?"

"A-sama, if I may?" Darui spoke up.

"Go on, but your report better be good." Raikage narrowed his eyes.

"When the invasion began, we started our pursuit. But it seemed Orochimaru had an idea of what our plan was. He sent two strong shinobi to stop us. We created an opening and the C's team left using that chance. As for us, we were equally matched but few other Oto nin suddenly jumped and distracted us. Using that chance, our opponents went for No.3. I would have been killed as well if it wasn't for the retreat signal." Darui explained.

"At least you were able to recover his weapon." Raikage then looked the three shinobi behind Darui, "Then what's the reason for their failure?"

"According to their report, they stopped before even reaching their destination. Because C sensed that all of them were dead, and few Konoha Anbu were there, ready and armed. Our guess is that Konoha Anbu found them while patrolling and killed them seeing that they were hostile. They still tried to complete their mission just by themselves but Ichibi was released and they had to back off." Darui covered for his teammates.

"The Ichibi was defeated, right? Why didn't they go back in after that?" Raikage asked, his anger was lessened a bit.

"Because it was around that time the retreat signal was given." Darui replied.

"I see." Raikage looked at the reports in front of him, instead of reading it he would always hear directly from the person if it was an important mission. He looked at Darui, "You stay. Rest of you, leave."

C, Yugito and D didn't have to be told twice. After they left Raikage looked at Darui, "Stand, I want to hear your opinion on the kid."

When Darui stood up, Raikage relaxed a bit on his chair, "So, how strong was he?"

Darui replied immediately, "He was strong, and was very good at using his bloodline."

A knew Darui for so long, and for that he saw the subtle signs of Darui being uncomfortable as if he was holding back something. A leaned on his desk and looked at Darui keenly, "Is there something else?"

Darui took a deep breath before answering, "He can use storm release through his enchanted swords. He can also use the infamous Rasengan. And according to C, he was the one who stopped Ichibi."

Hearing all that, Raikage was intrigued, "Really now? So how did he defeat the Biju?"

"With one high level S rank storm release jutsu."

The answer made A to grin, "I see." He then looked again at the reports.

"Darui, I want you to forge papers and do whatever else is necessary to change No.3's identity. Make him someone who is from a well-known noble clan and someone who has a high standing in our village."

Darui was confused at first but then it hit him. He bowed to Raikage and replied, "As you wish."

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XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

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**In Konoha**

Naruto had a blank face, he didn't know what to feel or what to do. A small touch made him look to his side to see Haku. She was smiling sadly at him but her eyes were red. It made him understood that what he heard and was seeing was real. He looked back again, and this time tears started to fall from his eyes.

On the other side of the window, Ranmaru was sleeping. He was in ICU. His condition wasn't good so they weren't allowed to go inside. They couldn't protest after seeing his state.

Yamato told them what happened, about how he was able to make it in time before the falling walls could crush him. But it was still too late. Ranmaru's legs were damaged badly, and because of the shock he went into a coma. After explaining, Yamato left, saying how he had failed being Ranmaru's sensei.

"He will be fine." Haku said in a soft voice, "Remember Lee, he was in the same condition."

Naruto tightened his fist, his gesture hardened. He looked at Haku, tears still falling but he had a determined face, "I am not going to wait for a miracle, Haku-nee. I am going to do whatever I can to help him, even if it means going to other villages to find the best medic and drag that person all the way to here."

"You don't have to go to other villages for that." Hearing that Naruto and Haku looked to the newcomer, it was Hinata. She had flowers in her hand.

"Because the best medic is from Konoha."

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Hokage's Room

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"How are you feeling , Sensei." Jiraiya asked in a concerned voice.

"I wish I could say that I am feeling good, but the fight against him really took its toll." Hiruzen replied.

"Are you kidding me? You whopped Orochimaru's ass like there was no tomorrow." Jiraiya laughed.

"You and I both know that if you weren't there the outcome would be very different." Hiruzen sighed, "But what really angers me is that we were so close to catching Orochimaru."

"Yah, if only he didn't use the First and the Second to block our paths." Jiraiya groaned.

What happened after the barrier went down was, they, along with quite a few strong Anbu, gave chase to Orochimaru and in the process were able to take down one more of the 'Sound Four'. Orochimaru knew that he might not get away unharmed so he used the Kage to block his pursuers. He also summoned one of his strongest snakes. It wasn't easy to defeat three headed snake along with two immortal Hokage. When they finally defeated their opponents, Orochimaru was long gone.

"Yes but …"

Hiruzen was interrupted as Naruto opened the door roughly. All the Anbu hidden in his room tensed up as Naruto had sparks going around his body. Naruto looked back to see the angry and scared secretary and snarled, "I told you that I wanna talk to the old man, so piss off."

Hiruzen immediately got the picture. With subtle sigh, he ordered the Anbu to relax and secretary to go back.

"Naruto, what brings you here?" Hiruzen smiled, it had been really long since Naruto came to talk to him alone.

"Do you know where Tsunade is?" Naruto asked directly.

"Why do you want to know about her, brat?" Jiraiya asked.

Naruto looked at the second person in the office and scowled. He looked at Hiruzen again and replied, "She can heal Ranmaru, can't she? So I want to know where she is."

Hiruzen and Jiraiya both noticed Naruto's behavior toward the toad sage. And with the fact that he used Rasengan on the arena, they wanted to confirm something. Hiruzen asked calmly as he pointed at Jiraiya, "Naruto, do you know who this is?"

"Ya, Jiraiya, the perverted sanin and my …"Naruto stopped immediately but from his tone both Hiruzen and Jiraiya knew what he was going to tell.

"Naruto, why don't you take a seat?" Naruto got defensive hearing the third. But before he could take any more rash actions, his savior came,

"_**Looks like I gotta save your skin once again brat."**_ Raiju chuckled.

"_Raiju-san."_ Naruto panicked slightly.

"_**Don't worry, listen to what I say. I knew this was coming sooner or later anyway."**_ Raiju's voice helped Naruto to relax.

Now knowing that his friendly tenant was backing him, Naruto calmed down and did what Hiruzen said.

"Naruto, how did you learn to use Rasengan?" Hiruzen said in a very gentle manner.

"My _dad_ taught me that."

There was a pin drop silence. Jiraiya and Hiruzen looked at Naruto with mouths open as the said genin had a blank look.

"Umm, could you repeat that brat?"

Naruto looked at Jiraiya annoyingly, "My father, Minato Namikaze, the fourth Hokage, the one who sealed the Kyuubi inside me, taught me how to use Rasengan."

It took few seconds for both Jiraiya and Hiruzen to finally understand what Naruto said. But instead of rushing him, they decided to approach this in a more tactful manner. So once again Hiruzen asked softly, "Naruto, how did you know about him?"

Naruto paused for some time before answering, "According to him, he sealed some part of his chakra inside the seal as a failsafe. But when I wore the mask, it interfered with the seal and forced his chakra to get out. There I met him and we," Naruto stopped for a second before continuing, "talked."

Then it hit Hiruzen as he remembered, why Naruto asked about his parents the moment he woke up.

"I am sorry Naruto," The third spoke sadly, "I know I didn't try hard enough but you have to understand…."

"Understand what? I had the right to know." Naruto narrowed his eyes, "The world wouldn't have ended if you would have told me who my parents were. I know they have enemies but if you had told me properly I would have kept it a secret. Heck, at least you could have told me about my mother."

"He couldn't take the risk." Jiraiya defended his sensei.

Naruto looked at Jiraiya. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath and anyone could see that he did that to calm down, "Then the conversation is over."

When he saw that both Jiraiya and Hiruzen wanted to speak up, he continued, "Because he didn't talk to me as a Hokage rather he talked to me as my father. He told me things that _I _needed to know. Now why would I want to tell you about those?"

Hiruzen and Jiraiya exchanged looks and knew that they couldn't force anything out of Naruto right now. They also knew that Naruto wasn't telling them the whole truth but decided not to voice that. Suddenly an idea hit Jiraiya.

"Brat, you are looking for Tsunade to heal your teammate, right? I can help you with that if you listen to two requests of mine." Jiraiya spoke up. Hiruzen didn't say anything as he wanted to see where this was going.

"What are your requests?" Naruto asked, he voice was a bit guarded.

"Have a simple spar with me and after that let me check your seal." Jiraiya replied back sincerely.

Naruto thought for few seconds before answering, "Fine, you got a deal. But if you are not going to keep your words, you are going to regret that."

Jiraiya laughed out loud hearing that, "Don't worry brat, I won't do that."

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Few Days Later

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For the past couple of days, everyone was busy because of the funeral held for those who had died in the battle. The village was slowly recovering but the wound would take longer time to heal. Everyone was busy reconstructing or helping in any way for the village. But for Naruto, it was a different case.

Naruto and Jiraiya was in training ground fifteen, his team's training area.

"So, brat, show me what you got." Jiraiya said as he took a fighting stance, of course he had no intention to go all out, rather he had a different motive for this fight, "After that show me your seal and then we will go to look for Hime."

Jiraiya immediately knew that maybe he ought to take this a bit more seriously. Because the moment he said that Naruto already took out his weapons and dense sparks started to dance around him.

"Oh, I will show you what I got. You can bet your perverted ass on that."

And then Naruto charged without waiting for any signal.

"Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu."

Hundreds of clone came out and charged at Jiraiya who already finished going through his hand seals.

"Needle Hell."

Jiraiya extended his hair around his body and shot a barrage of hardened hair needles to every direction, effectively stopping the rampage of Naruto's clones. He immediately jumped away because not a moment later quite few explosive clones smashed themselves to where he was and detonated.

"Twin moon storm style: Crescent moon."

"Fire Release: Big Flame Bullet."

Jiraiya used his jutsu on the side in such a way that it redirected Naruto's storm release jutsu.

He wasn't surprised at all when he saw Naruto coming at him immediately. Naruto made few clones and each of those clones took two kunai at each hand and surrounded Jiraiya. The toad sage kicked the first clone coming at him and was surprised to see it withstanding his attack. And using his momentary loss of concentration everyone lunged at him.

But he wasn't sanin for no reason.

"Wild Lion's Mane Jutsu."

Jiraiya's hair grew longer once more but instead of sharp needle it acted like a steel whip, binding all of the clones and destroying them. Naruto jumped to back off just to create few more clones, and got back in. Jiraiya immediately cancelled his Jutsu and destroyed Naruto's new clones by throwing kunai at them with great accuracy. And just like he guessed those were explosive clones.

But he was surprised to see Naruto still coming at him despite that and saw how Naruto was using lightning to increase his speed and flexibility. Jiraiya took out his stone swords and confronted the enraged Naruto. But when their swords clashed, he thought that maybe it wasn't such a good idea to have a _stone_ sword clashing against a _lightning _sword.

"I am sorry, Naruto."

Naruto's eyes widened and his body tensed.

"I am sorry that I wasn't there for you."

Naruto's chakra spiked and got to a different level. His pupils slitted and his body tensed more. Not just that but lightning started to come out from his body which pushed Jiraiya away.

"You do not get to tell me that!" Naruto roared.

He charged and while on the way to Jiraiya he used shadow clone using hand seals through only one hand. Jiraiya used one sword to block real Naruto while other sword to destroy his clones.

"You were supposed to be my godfather!"

Jiraiya sensed another chakra spike behind Naruto and was surprised to one clone was gather chakra while going through some hand seals. Naruto jumped back and got beside the clone and immediately the clone shouted,

"Storm Release: Laser Circus."

And the moment the lightning energy beam started to come out from the orb, Naruto destroyed the clone with one hand and took control of the orb with the same hand immediately.

"_Ingenious."_ Jiraiya thought as he was dodging the beams. He tried to remember if he knew _anyone_ who could use shadow clones so efficiently and with so many variations. It was as if Naruto alone was one man army.

When the Jutsu stopped, Naruto was a bit low on breath. Throwing consecutive high ranked jutsu and strong attacks started to take a bit toll on his body, but he didn't care about that.

"If you are not capable of doing your god damn job, why the fuck did you take it?"

Naruto's body was shaking, although he was low on breath, his powers didn't show any sign of going down.

"Give me one chance to fix this." Jiraiya pleaded in a soft voice.

"You got nothing to fix!"

Naruto let go of his swords and concentrated on his lightning that was coming out from his body and pointed that power to his hand. From elbow down the whole arm was covered with thick chakra but when he added water there his arm wasn't visible anymore.

"Storm Release: Divine fist."

And he did all that while running toward Jiraiya.

Jiraiya was stunned to see such jutsu, he never thought that he could see another seal less jutsu similar to Rasengan. He was so out of it that it was too late, Naruto was close and he didn't have time to dodge properly. So on pure reflex, he created a Rasengan and slammed it against Naruto's jutsu.

The two jutsu battled for dominance for few seconds and then with a huge shockwave it exploded. Because of the shockwave both Jiraiya and Naruto was thrown away and they were lucky because if it wasn't for the shockwave they would have been hurt badly by the explosion.

Jiraiya stood up and was surprised to see his arm still shaking. He immediately rushed to Naruto and saw that his arm was injured, not badly though.

"Naruto….."

"Save it, I sparred just like you wanted. Now about the second part, you want to check the seal now?" Naruto said in a flat voice.

"After we go and check that hand of yours, then." Jiraiya replied

Naruto didn't look at him as he headed toward the hospital.

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At evening

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"So what do you think?"

"The kid truly hates my guts, sensei. All the time in the fight he was coming at me with lethal force." Jiraiya sighed.

"That is what you wanted, right? For him to let out all his suppressed anger toward you through that spar." Hiruzen replied softly.

"Yes, I am glad to see that he is not angry anymore but I don't think he will be forgiving any of us any time soon." Jiraiya said sorrowfully.

"Give him some time, and whatever he decides, I am pretty sure he will follow his heart." Hiruzen smiled and the he looked at Jiraiya a bit concerned, "How is the seal?"

"Nothing is wrong with it, although it has another strong layer over it which I couldn't decipher but gimme some time on it. But you got nothing to worry about for now." Jiraiya replied back and then he looked at his sensei right in the eye, "Now about you. Are you sure about this? This is quite a big decision and I am not sure if Tsunade will agree to it."

"I am not getting any younger, Jiraiya. I wasn't even supposed to be in this position for so long. I think it is the perfect time to step down." Hiruzen replied back warmly and then he grinned, "Besides, I am better suited to be an advisor then a kage right now."

Jiraiya shook his head, but at the end he smiled,

"If that is what you wish, sensei."

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**Next Day**

"You know brat, it was supposed to be just you and me." Jiraiya said flatly.

"When and who said that?" Naruto quirked his eyebrow, "And it's not like I am taking my whole friend circle, just one person who is good at tracking."

Jiraiya looked at the shy Hyuuga and sighed.

"What about her own team?"

"Kurenai-sensei gave the ok."

"What about her clan?"

"They are fine with it."

Jiraiya wanted to groan but held it to himself. He wanted some alone time with Naruto to make up to him. He also wanted Naruto to sigh the toad contract. But guess he would have to improvise his tactics now. Although in a way, Jiraiya thought he could learn more about Naruto from his friend seeing he wouldn't tell him.

"Alright kids, let's get ready. It will take some time before we can reach our destination."

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With Haku

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Naruto actually came to Haku first and told her about his newest mission. He wanted her to come but Haku decided against it, telling him that she was needed in the village and it was not just for Ranmaru. She was the one who suggested taking Hinata seeing she was better suited for tracking than her.

Right now Haku was heading toward a specific place. When she reached there, she smiled when she saw who was sitting there. She took a seat beside him and took out a lunchbox.

"You know, if anyone sees me bringing you food every day, they are going to have a misunderstanding." Haku said in a light tone.

"I told you not to bother yourself with me." Sasuke replied back calmly.

"You're beating yourself for something that is not your fault." Haku sighed as she opened the lunchbox.

"I _butchered_ those people back there, even the allies and the innocent. It makes me feel like I am the same as _him_." Sasuke said as he closed his eyes.

"But you are not. And if you didn't kill the enemies then they would have come for the rest of the people in the hospital." Haku smiled sadly.

"But I didn't have that intention. I didn't saw Oto or Suna nin. All I saw was _him_, taunting me, belittling me, all the while massacring everyone." Sasuke opened his eyes, they were full of regret, "I want to kill him but I don't want to be like him."

Haku sighed. She put the food on the side as she stood up and went in front of Sasuke. She gently held his face and made him to look at her, "You regret what you did back there and that is enough proof that you are not him. You are your own person. The jutsu that you developed to defeat him, the one you cannot control, and the one which killed all those people back there, in the end it is just a mindless jutsu created by you. You can either drop it or hone it. But one thing I can tell is that don't run away from what happened, Sasuke."

Haku got up. She took the food and put it beside Sasuke, "Because if you run away, at the end you will be the one to suffer." With that Haku started to leave but she stopped and looked back,

"You know where to find me, if you need any help."

What they didn't know that all the while when they were talking two cloaked figure was approaching toward Konoha.

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**Done.**

**One thing guys, the reason Naruto acted like this was because he felt betrayed. He won't hold grudges but he will a bit slow on the forgiving. Hope that explains his behavior.**

**Do leave a review, it helps to motivate a lot.**

**So till next time.**


	34. Chapter 34 : Returning with Tsunade

**Here is another quick update,**

**This chapter was done few days back but then I had bad case of flu so giving it the finishing touches took some time. Expect some grammatical errors as I couldn't proof-read it all too well, when I get better I will fix those problems. **

**Now onto the story. **

_**Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto.**_

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"What do you mean you don't like toads?" Jiraiya asked with wide eyes, to him it as if Naruto was talking blasphemy.

"Toads are great, I admit, but it is just that they are not," Naruto made a sheepish face before continuing, "cool, y'know, like wolves or" Naruto paused for a second before adding, "Like foxes."

Seeing Jiraiya narrowing his eyes, Naruto put up his hands in a defensive manner, "I am not being controlled or influenced by that furball, if that is what you are thinking. But you gotta admit, he looks really cool and awesome."

"Naruto, you do know what the kyuubi did thirteen years ago, right?" Jiraiya asked with a sign.

Naruto looked down, his shoulders shook slightly as he remembered what his father said about that faithful day, about how he lost everything, "You and I both know who was truly at fault."

Jiraiya was surprised but someone was more surprised than him.

Inside Naruto's mind the fox moved a bit, he didn't want to open his eyes because he knew he was going to see the grinning face of his unwelcomed neighbor.

Jiraiya's eyes softened, but he grinned when he saw the Hyuuga coming closer and putting her hand at Naruto's shoulder, making him to calm down.

"So, we didn't get to know each other." Jiraiya smirked at girl, "I am pretty sure you know who I am, the gallant toad sage and the best of the three sanin." Jiraiya made an exaggerated pose as he said that.

Hinata smiled as she bowed, "Yes I know about you, Jiraiya-sama. My name is Hinata Hyuuga, the heiress of Hyuuga clan."

Naruto puffed out his chest as he boasted, "And my awesome girlfriend."

Hinata blushed and wondered if she could make Naruto understand that she didn't like to be in the spotlight. And seeing the glint in the toad sage's eyes, she knew this journey would be anything but comfortable.

"You got quite the catch, Naruto." Jiraiya's grin widened, "So how did you manage to bag such a beauty."

Naruto's blushed but grinned at the same time. Hinata didn't like where this was going so she tried to deviate their conversation, "So where do we find Tsunade-sama."

But before Naruto could fall for his girlfriend's trap, Jiraiya intervened, "I can confirm from my informant when we reach the next town. But before that, we were talking about something else."

All Hinata could do was to blush as Naruto started to tell the stories about them.

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**In Konoha**

Haku was dashing toward the Konoha gate but she took a different route.

Earlier she heard from Yamato that Kakashi was hospitalized. She was surprised to know that someone was able to take down the infamous 'Copycat Kakashi', in his home-village nonetheless. But when she heard just who was it that took him down, she knew that she had to find a certain Uchiha.

She finally found her target.

"Sasuke!"

The said Uchiha didn't even look back because he knew who was calling him; he didn't slow down either.

"He finally showed himself."

"Yes, but you gotta calm down."

"The killer of my whole clan has finally come out and you are asking me to calm down?"

"Yamato sensei is creating a party and will be in pursuit shortly…."

Sasuke didn't let Haku finished as he snarled, "I am not taking any chances and if you are here to stop me….."

This time Haku didn't let him finish as she threw few needles in front of him, effectively stopping him. Sasuke took a fighting stance but was surprise when Haku just went passed him and stood a bit front. She looked at the direct where Sasuke was heading and then back at him, "Your brother is after Naruto, so I am not taking any chances either. I am coming with you."

Sasuke nodded but before he could resume, Haku put up her hand, "And if I see that because of your _anger_ I may lose _my family_, I will calm you down by hitting you where it hurts the most."

Sasuke looked at her with a raised eyebrow. Shaking his head, he restarted his chase, Haku following him close behind.

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With Naruto and Hinata

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"That perverted ass, he left just like that to get that chick!"

Naruto was fuming. They reached the village, there was no problem there but before entering their hotel, a beautiful woman gave some suggestive signs to Jiraiya who didn't wait a minute to chase after her, leaving the two genin alone.

"Well, we can use this time to train ourselves." Hinata said optimistically.

Naruto looked at Hinata and then chuckled, "You really are something." And before Hinata could comment on that, Naruto hugged her and kissed her lightly. Hinata just blushed and smiled back.

"So, what do you have in mind?"

And then there was a knock in the door.

Naruto was seriously pissed, It was as if the whole universe was against him when he would have some good alone time with Hinata. Naruto stormed toward the door and opened it to see two shady guys, with fully cloaked and big hat.

"Naruto Uzumaki, I would like to you to come with us."

"And I would like to wear the Hokage's hat, but the world doesn't go like the way we want, now does it? So, piss off!"

And then he slammed the door on their face.

He just took two steps and then their words sank in and he remembered the face of one of them. After dealing with two Mist swordsmen, he looked up all of them in case if he had to clash against one of them and he was glad that he did that.

Outside the two S rank shinobi just stood there and looked at the door, they were replaying back what happened in the last few seconds.

"Itachi, did that brat just….."

"Yes."

"Ahh, just checking."

With a chuckle, Kisame kicked the door open and entered with a wide toothy smile.

"Brat, you got…"

And the room exploded.

Itachi, who was behind, ran away from the door to avoid getting caught from the blast. It was thanks to his sharingan. He stopped and waited for few seconds to see if Naruto had any more surprises. But he sighed when he heard the sound of Kisame's laughter and wall breaking. He wanted to follow but stopped. Taking a deep breath, he turned around.

"Hello Sasuke."

Sasuke growled back and charged without waiting for his partner.

Itachi closed his eyes and then opened back again, this time his eyes had no emotion. When Sasuke got close, he grabbed both of his hand, pulled him to one side making Sasuke to lose his balance and then kneed him. Sasuke coughed harshly but the next attack came immediately.

Itachi grabbed Sasuke's head and then smashed it to the wall beside them. And immediately he picked him up.

"You didn't learn, did you? Your hate is nothing but a child's whining."

Itachi's eyes started to change but immediately it changed back to normal and he let go of Sasuke. It was to avoid the needles that came to him with deadly precision.

"Ninja Art: Hidden Mist Jutsu."

Itachi looked around but was surprised when he stopped feeling his brother's presence.

"A distraction, clever."

Sasuke was disoriented but when his head became clear, he mover roughly and pushed away Haku who was taking him to safety. Sasuke looked at where they came from, and his anger spiked. He was still nowhere near him, he was still so far. He turned to that direction but had to stop when Haku grabbed his collar.

"Let go of …"

He couldn't finish as the sharp pain in his cheeks interrupted him. He was stunned but before his rage could come back with vengeance, Haku's forehead touched his.

"Please, if you lose, I will lose _my family_. Let me help you."

Sasuke rage couldn't surface. Although a bit of anger came back when Itachi landed in front of them.

"So, now you started to hide behind girls?"

Sasuke flinched but before he could retort, Haku spoke up, "If you fall for that than you are worse than Naruto."

Sasuke thought for a moment and then calmed down. Because of the high collar, the two genin couldn't see Itachi's slight grin.

Sasuke closed his eyes and opened them again. He sharingan was blazing with three tomoe, a full sharingan. With determined look, Sasuke stepped forward,

"I need you to distract him, but don't let him come near you or let him to look directly to your eyes. His eyes are dangerous." Sasuke warned as he wore his gloves.

"I know."

"Trust me, you don't."

Sasuke dashed toward his brother. Itachi's smirk turned into frown but before he could catch Sasuke, he jumped back in surprise. Sasuke made a swipe motion and Itachi had to duck to dodge the wire. It was so thin that it was hardly noticeable. And he would have lost few fingers if he would have caught Sasuke bare handed.

Itachi quickly went through some seals,

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu."

The huge fireball that was coming to Sasuke was cut clean into several pieces by the wire. Itachi had to admit, he was surprised to see the flexibility of that.

Itachi threw another fireball and then jumped to one side to throw some shuriken at his brother but had to step back to dodge the needles, which were precisely aimed at his eyes and at some vital points. Itachi looked at the girl, fully intending to put her into his illusion. And once again he was surprised. Because Haku was wearing her special mask, and it was hard for Itachi to notice where her eyes were looking at.

He didn't have time to ponder about that as Sasuke's wires came at him again from an unpredictable angle. He jumped up and threw his Kunai and shuriken in a way that they clashed with each other to redirect their angle.

Sasuke knew this style all too well. He immediately redirected his wire to cut the Kunai and shuriken. And this momentary distraction gave Itachi enough time to go for his next target. But unfortunately for him, she was prepared. The moment he came close, and Haku had to admit that Itachi was very fast, she threw a scroll which had water inside of it.

The water burst out making Itachi to fall back, and it gave Haku what she needed.

The distance between them and the water to create her jutsu,

"Hyoton: Frozen needles of death."

"Wiring Art: Death Trap."

A huge net made of Sasuke's deadly wire descended upon Itachi and Haku's needles was coming at him through the net gap. Even with his powerful Sharingan, Itachi couldn't find any escape. He was really amazed at the deadly precision of the duo, but it was not enough.

"Amateratsu."

The black flame burned through a portion of the net, also obliterating the needles from that side, giving Itachi the escape route from that deadly trap.

"To make me able to go that far." Itachi grinned but he was breathing a bit heavily, "But it is still not enough. You are not close enough Sasuke, even when you are getting so much help."

Sasuke gritted his teeth, he was about to lose his cool but, "We are not the one who is out of breath. And about us ganging up on you, we are not S rank shinobi yet." Haku's honest words helped Sasuke again.

Itachi wanted to retort but he felt the other presence coming. Without a word, he jumped away and then disappeared through shunshin.

Sasuke wanted to follow but Haku stopped him by grabbing his shoulder. When Sasuke looked at her annoyingly, Haku pointed at something.

His wires, they were still being burned by that black flame.

.

With Naruto and Hinata

.

The moment Naruto realized who was behind the door, at least one of them, he immediately created few explosive clones. Hinata immediately took a fighting tense but Naruto just pointed the window. No more words where needed as they both jumped out of the window. But the clones detonated before they could even land, making them to lose balance. But they were still able to land properly.

They immediately took fighting stance when they heard the laughter, and not a second later, their opponent came down.

Kisame's attire was slightly tattered but other than that he looked fine, rather he looked excited.

Hinata gasped when she realized who it was, she looked at Naruto worriedly who frowned,

"Kisame Hoshigaki." Naruto's confirmed Hinata's fear.

"You know your stuffs brat." Kisame chuckled and raised an eyebrow when he saw Naruto's swords, "Quite some fancy toy you got there."

And in a flash, he was in front of Naruto, "But can you use them?"

All Naruto could do was to put his Raiken to defend, but it was nowhere enough. It was as if Naruto defense was meaningless. The huge swing made by Kisame with his Samehada made Naruto to go flying. Kisame was that strong, and the worst part was that he was using only one hand to wield his giant sword.

Hinata immediately jumped back and fired her jutsu,

"Eight Trigrams Double Heavenly Vacuum Palm."

Kisame used to sword to defend himself and immediately struck Hinata but she was flexible. She used the sword to jump up but before she could do anything she had to defend the high kick, courtesy of Kisame. Now she went flying.

Kisame wanted to finish off the nuisance but stopped when he felt the pressure.

"Twin moon storm style: Crescent moon."

Kisame swung his sword at the incoming jutsu and he was impressed by the sheer power, but it wasn't strong enough. Samehada sliced through the jutsu, eating a large portion of the chakra.

"Nice one brat, but…."

Kisame couldn't finish as hundreds of shadow clone came down at him, and quite a lot of them were explosive clones. Kisame didn't notice that, so when he took a huge swing to destroy the clones, all the explosive clones detonated themselves, simultaneously.

And the next attack came immediately,

"Flowing Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms."

"Water Release: Water Bullet Technique."

The jutsu disrupted Hinata's concentration and she immediately jumped to the side to dodge the sword strike, but only to receive a strong punch that sent her flying. Naruto jumped and caught her. But when he heard the voice behind him, his blood went cold.

"Watch your opponent, swordsman-wannabe."

And Kisame dropped the sword on the two defenseless genin.

And in the next second, he was the one flying away from them.

Naruto slowly looked back and what he saw made his jaws go wide.

The person who saved them was wearing a long green vest that had white, carpet-like tufts, and a pair of baggy green pants. He also had thin green strands across his chest, and a beige belt that holds a small scroll on his waist. He was wearing a big straw hat and a green cloak with tree branch patterns. He was wielding a bamboo staff.

When he turned around, Naruto blinked. He started to shake Hinata who was still in his arms.

"Hinata, Hinata, look," Hinata looked at their savior and she blinked as well,

"It's a panda, a giant, cloth wearing bamboo wielding panda."

The said panda laughed openly hearing that, his voice was booming, "Your boyfriend sure is funny Hinata Hyuuga."

Naruto tightened his hold on Hinata but before they could say anything, Kisame made his presence known but once again the S ranked swordsman was pushed back.

"I am here to help," The panda looked at Hinata and smiled, "our summoner."

Then he dashed toward Kisame and both of the warriors clashed.

"You are strong for an overgrown panda."

"You are not bad yourself for an expired fish."

Kisame growled at the jab and became serious but he was having hard time hitting his opponent. The panda was good at blocking, dodging and striking hard with minimum effort. Kisame went low and pushed his chakra to his feet. With the enhanced speed, he struck the panda.

Kisame looked dumbly,

Naruto's jaw dropped,

And Hinata blinked.

The panda block the sword thrust with his stomach,

Yes, his stomach.

The sword made the belly of the panda to go inward a bit before the stomach stretched out and made the sword bounced back, only to hit the stunned Kisame straight in the face. But the panda jumped back, and only a second later Itachi came. When he stopped near his partner, he looked at Kisame holding his nose and then at the panda.

Shaking his head, he said, "Kisame we need to go now."

Kisame growled back in anger.

"Kisame, now."

Itachi's stern voice made Kisame to step back. He looked at the panda and narrowed his eyes, "Next time I am driving my sword through your stomach."

With that both of them left.

"That was so awesome!"

Naruto's exciting voice made the mood lighten up. He and Hinata came to their rescuer, "So, you are like Hinata's summon animal."

Hinata looked at the panda with awe, _"This was the animal clan that scroll contained?"_

"Hinata Hyuuga," Hinata refrained from 'eep-ing' and meekly came forward. "My name is Li Shan, of the panda animal clan. I am the elder who was watching over you to see if you have what it takes to be our summoner." Li, the panda, then went to Hinata's level, well as much as he could considering his size. He put one hand on Hinata's shoulder and smiled, "Tell me young Hyuuga, what do you think summoning animals are?"

"Friends and teachers?" Hinata said, not sure why she was asked the said question.

Li smiled and then it turned to laughter, he took the small scroll on his waist and then opened it. "Just what I expected from you, you have the heart of a noble warrior. So do you wish to be our summoner, young Hyuuga?"

Hinata nodded back shyly making Li to grin at her, "Then write your name with your blood and then you will be our official summoner."

Hinata did just that. Li smiled, he put the scroll back and then ruffled Hinata's hair, "It will be honor to have you as our summoner."

"The honor will be mine." Hinata finally smiled back.

With that Li disappeared through smoke.

Right after he was gone, Jiraiya along with Haku and Sasuke came there.

"You brats are alright?"

Naruto chuckled, "I guess so."

.

.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

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.

**Few Days Later**

Tsunade knew something bad was going to happen when she hit the jackpot. She wanted to leave Tanzaku city immediately but Shizune wanted to visit the local castle. So they went to see the castle and after that they decided that they would leave the city after lunch. And that was where they met Jiraiya and his accomplice.

"Could you repeat that again, because I think I have problem in hearing." Tsunade looked at Jiraiya annoyed.

"Sensei decided that it is high time he steps down, and you are the perfect to wear the mantle after him." Jiraiya replied.

"I am not going to be the next Hokage. That is a fool's job." Tsunade groaned.

Naruto's mind was elsewhere. After their encounter with the duo criminal, Yamato came with few other Jonin. They tried to track them but were unable to. After that, they left taking Sasuke, Haku and Hinata as well, the reason for Hinata leaving was because of her injury. The strike she received from Kisame injured her shoulder, nothing serious but it was better for her to return back which she reluctantly did.

But Tsunade's last words made him to look at her with an annoyed expression, he snorted, "As if this old hag can do anything."

"What was that brat?" Tsunade growled, "I know who you are, you are Kyuubi's jailor." Then she snorted, "Such a waste of the fourth, to save Konoha by throwing away his life."

There was a sound of lightning crackling.

And the whole place went quiet.

Tsunade and Shizune looked at Naruto with stunned expression, because sparks were coming out from his body literally. He didn't move but his face had a hard expression. Jiraiya knew things were going to go downhill.

"Even if you are my relative, I will put you down if you say one more bad word about my dad."

The silence was now deafening.

"My relative?" Tsunade shouted.

"Your father?" Shizune shouted.

Jiraiya was also surprised, and seeing all the stunned faces, Naruto groaned, he could hear Raiju chuckling, _"Ya, ya, I know I screwed up again."_

The laughter increased.

"My great-grandfather is Tobirama Senju, who is Minato's grandfather and who in turn is my father." Seeing Jiraiya wanting to speak up, he continued to shut him up, "I will tell you about it later."

"So what? You expect us to be all warm and cozy, family-like?" Tsunade said, even though her eyes showed annoyed expression but her face had a doubted one.

Naruto got up and looked Tsunade right at the eye, "I don't care about that, I also don't care whether you want to take the Hokage hat or no. But what I do care is about someone who is in coma. And you will be helping him whether you like it or not." Naruto's expression darkened more, "I will drag you to Konoha if I have to."

Tsunade got up and looked challengingly at Naruto and before Jiraiya could stop her, she smirked, "You and me, outside. Let's see who will be dragging who."

Naruto looked at her blankly before getting up and motioning her to lead the way.

They went to a bit secluded side of the town for their match.

Tsunade looked at Naruto and smirked, "Seeing that you are only a genin, it would be unwise if I go all out, I am a senin after all." Naruto scowled hearing that. Then she raised one finger, "I will be using only one finger against you, for both offense and defense."

Jiraiya didn't like the gleam in Naruto's eyes, "Hime, I think you should reconsider this."

Tsunade scowled at Jiraiya, "Nonsense, if this brat can make me use more than one finger than it will be his win."

"I hope you won't go back on your words." Naruto smirked.

"Don't overestimate yourself brat, begin the match." Tsunade snorted.

Jiraiya motioned the beginning of the match.

Every part of Naruto wanted to rush toward Tsunade but he knew that wouldn't be wise. Tsunade was underestimating him and that was his chance.

"_Time to use that." _Naruto created two shadow clones who went through necessary hand-seals, then both of them shouted,

"Storm Release: Laser Circus."

Naruto touched the back of the two clones who immediately dispelled themselves and then he took direct control of the two orbs of laser circus,

"Storm Release: Twin Laser circus."

Tsunade didn't want to admit that, but she knew she messed up. There was no way of dodging the lightning lasers that was coming to her with just one finger. She put chakra on her feet and then jumped to avoid the lasers. She jumped in a way so that she would land on top of Naruto but she was surprised to see Naruto changing the direction of the lasers.

Cursing loudly, she punched to her side and the shockwave created from that was enough to dodge the lasers.

When she landed, she looked at Naruto to see him smirking, "You used more than one finger for defense, now for your offense."

"Multi Shadow clone jutsu."

In a second, Tsunade was surrounded by hundred shadow clones, all of whom immediately charged at him. But Tsunade started to destroy them all just using one of her finger. She made a swipe with her finger to destroy the first group of clones and then she pressed her finger on the ground to crack it so much that lot of the clones lost their balance and was dispelled. And then her danger senses went off. She looked to the front to see, real Naruto charging toward her,

"Storm Release: Divine fist."

Tsunade had more than enough experience to know that there was no way she could do anything against that jutsu with one finger, but she also knew she could hit him first before his jutsu would reach her. So with a quick dash she closed the gap and went to strike Naruto, but it seemed that Naruto also knew that. He body swapped with one of the clone behind her and that foiled Tsunade's plan. And with just pure instinct she turned around and went to counter Naruto's jutsu with her punch, only to meet nothing.

Because when Naruto saw her turning, he body swapped again.

He dispelled his jutsu and smirked, "And there goes your offence, so according to _your rule_ it is my win, right?"

Tsunade looked at Jiraiya dumbfounded, who sighed back at her, "I wanted to warn you Hime, even if he is genin, power wise he is elite Chunin level."

Tsunade looked at Naruto and scoffed at him, and without a word she left the place.

It was late evening,

Tsunade was sitting at the roof of the inn they were staying. She put down her sake cup when she felt the presence behind her.

"What do you want brat?"

"I heard from Shizune, about your blood phobia and the loss of your loved ones."

Hearing that, Tsunade held the cup just a bit tighter but that was more than enough to break it, "So what, are you going to pity me or are going to say that you know how it feels?"

"I am not going to pity you," Naruto said as he sat beside Tsunade, "But I am close to know how you felt."

Tsunade quirked an eyebrow at Naruto but didn't say anything, Naruto took this chance to continue, "I was an orphan, had no one. But then I found a surrogate brother, sister. And I also got a girlfriend recently. It was perfect. But now Ranmaru, who I consider as my little brother, is in coma."

Naruto clenched his fists and tears started to fall from his eyes, "Yamato-sensei used to tell me that I am one of the strongest genin he had ever seen, that I have powers to achieve great feats. But standing beside his bed, I truly know how powerless I am. How having the strongest bijuu inside me and having the great lineage meant nothing."

Tsunade looked at Naruto with wide eyes. In that moment, she saw herself in Naruto, about how powerless she thought herself to be.

"Please, help him. I beg of you."

Tsunade put her hand on Naruto's head to try to calm him down. Naruto slowly leaned himself toward the senin, he didn't know when he fell asleep crying in her soothing embrace.

Tsunade carried Naruto to his room, after he fell asleep, and when she got out Shizune was there for her.

"You are going to Konoha?"

"I can't help him Shizune, not with my condition."

Shizune smiled at her mentor, she cut finger slightly just to draw a drop of blood. Tsunade tensed when she saw the blood but before she could turn around Shizune came and gently grabbed Tsunade's hand with her uninjured one.

"Tsunade-sama, when Dan died, I had no one. But you took me under your wing and raised me. To me you are my mentor, my motherly-figure and my world. It pains me to see you like this."

Shizune gently pushed her chakra to make Tsunade to activate 'Mystical palm technique' and then put her hand on the injury, "I know why you fear blood Tsunade-sama, but this same blood runs through my vein and Naruto's vein, we are your family as well. I know you are strong enough to overcome your fear, all you need to is just to believe."

The shaking reduced greatly as Tsunade looked at her apprentice with tearful eyes. Shizune smiled as tears started to form on the corner of her eyes as well.

"Let's go back to our home."

.

.

.

**OMAKE **

Wiring Art

_Haku got up. She took the food and put it beside Sasuke, "Because if you run away, at the end you will be the one to suffer." With that Haku started to leave but she stopped and looked back,_

"_You know where to find me, if you need any help." _

Sasuke watched as Haku left and then slowly he took the bento box and at the food.

His new jutsu was complicated but was quite simple at the same time. When he found out that his secondary element was earth, honestly he was kinda unhappy till Kakashi told him what he could do with earth element.

Earth Jutsu were strong and sturdy but there were other ways to use earth element. Best example, Gaara, the Fourth and the Third Kazekage. They used earth in a really unique way. After analyzing their style and reading a few other exceptional earth element users, he came up with his own style, and Kakashi enhanced it.

The Wiring Art,

Just like how Gaara contained his special chakra-enhanced sand in his gourd, Sasuke put his chakra-enhanced wire in his gauntlet, through sealing. And for the element of the metal, he chose obsidian, one of the sharpest metals.

It was simple in terms of theory, he would release the wire and then would control and maneuver it through his sharingan. The best part, the wire didn't make much of a sound as it would cut and slash almost everything. But with his two tomoe sharingan, it was hard to control its movement. And that was the reason he also cut the dead bodies of his allies, it made him feel disgusted and tainted. But that experience unlocked his third tomoe.

With a sigh he gently put down the bento and got up. He wore the gloves, and activated his fully awakened sharingan.

"She is right, I can't run away, I don't have the _luxury_ to run away."

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**Done.**

**Do leave a review, it helps to motivate us authors a lot.**

**So till next time.**


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